With employment discrimination charges at a 15-year high, employers are seeing a particular increase in claims brought by workers who are pregnant or caring for young children or aging parents. A 2010 report by the Center for WorkLife Law at the University of California Hastings College of the Law shows that plaintiffs in these family-responsibility cases are more likely to prevail than plaintiffs in other types of employment discrimination cases, with average awards exceeding $500,000. In one notable class action, a jury awarded $3.36 million in compensatory damages and an additional $250 million in punitive damages when it found discrimination against women in the employer’s pay, promotion, pregnancy and family leave policies. These trends raise the question of whether employers can better address sensitive issues relating to gender, pregnancy and caregiving responsibilities, which we will discuss in this month’s column.
The Debate
Some companies aim to desensitize their work forces to differences between men and women and thus train managers not to ask employees questions related to gender, pregnancy or caregiver responsibilities. But management experts—and legal counsel—are rethinking these practices, particularly in the wake of Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg’s book Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead, published in March 2013, in which Sandberg said she instead teaches managers “to encourage women to talk about their plans to have children and help them continue to reach for opportunities.”
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