The Center for WorkLife Law

The Center for WorkLife Law, at the University of California Hastings College, of is a nonprofit research and advocacy organization that seeks to eliminate employment discrimination against employees who have caregiving responsibilities for family members, such as mothers and fathers of young children and adults with aging parents.

This form of discrimination is known as Family Responsibilities Discrimination (FRD). The Center for WorkLIfe Law works with employers, employees, attorneys, legislators, journalists and researchers to identify and prevent FRD.

According to the Center, discrimination includes:

refusing to hire or promote caregivers based on the assumption that they will not be dedicated workers;

creating a hostile work environment for caregivers to force them to leave their jobs,

and imposing job requirements or restrictions on caregivers that are not imposed on other workers.

Elder care cases are an increasing subset of FRD cases, and, many of them are based on FMLA or state leave law claims.

The Center’s research indicates that employees with elder care responsibilities need flexibility more than any other benefit. Where their employers do not have a flexible work arrangement policy, working caregivers’ only option for gaining flexibility is to exercise their right to protected leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) or their state’s leave law.

All working caregivers and employers should be aware of their related rights and obligations under the leave laws, and, the Center for WorkLife Law is a good place to start.