Family Responsibilities Discrimination Program

In an increasingly strained economic environment, family responsibilities discrimination is gaining renewed focus both in Congress and in the Administration.  Working families often face difficult choices between responsibilities at home to young, aging, ill or disabled family members and the pressures of a sometimes unforgiving work environment.  FRD can manifest itself in varied contexts, including in pay disparities and in promotion and retention decisions, and for varied reasons, including misperceptions about the capabilities about persons with caregiving responsibilities and a lack of awareness about employer obligations.  Many of these difficulties can be avoided with thoughtful approaches to work arrangements thus ensuring the hiring, retention and promotion of qualified, productive workers to the benefit of both employees and employers. 

Our program will explore the various existing statutory and regulatory bases for family responsibility discrimination claims, such as Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act.  Additionally, we will review recent case law, legislative and regulatory developments and discuss approaches to common issues faced by employees with caregiving responsibilities and their employers.

Our Panelists:

Ernest Haffner is a Senior Attorney Advisor in the EEOC’s Office of Legal Counsel and is primarily responsible for drafting policy documents that address issues arising under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and the Equal Pay Act.  He has worked extensively on a wide range of EEO issues, and was the principle drafter of the EEOC’s Enforcement Guidance on Unlawful Disparate Treatment of Workers with Caregiving Responsibilities.

Professor Joan C. Williams, the 1066 Foundation Chair at University of California Hastings College of the Law and prize-winning author, is the director of WorkLife Law and co-director of the Project for Attorney Retention. She was the 2006 recipient of the Margaret Brent Award for Women Lawyers of Achievement.

Dr. Heather Boushey is a Senior Economist at the Center for American Progress.  Dr. Boushey studies working families and trends in the U.S. labor market, has testified before Congress, and written extensively on labor issues, including tracking the recession and its impact on workers and their families, women’s labor force participation, trends in income inequality, and work/life policy issues.

Marc A. Antonetti (moderator), a partner Baker Hostetler’s Washington office, focuses his practice on employment and labor law.  He is co-chair of the ABA’s Administrative Law Section’s Labor and Employment Committee.

Schedule-at-a-Glance