Family Leave and the Employers who Ignore it

The New York Times has a lengthy piece on family leave in its Magazine section today, which begins with the story of a woman who was fired after giving birth prematurely. She maintains that she remained in touch with her employer and was assured that all was well, finding out she was fired only after receiving information from the mortgage company through which she had tried to refinance her home that she was no longer on salary.

The article reports that this woman’s situation may not be unique:

“Since the mid-1990s, the number of workers who have sued their employers for supposed mistreatment on account of family responsibilities — becoming pregnant, needing to care for a sick child or relative — has increased by more than 300 percent. More than 1,150 such lawsuits have been filed in federal and state courts…”

I remember seeing these stats earlier in the year, and wondering if more discrimination is happening when employees need leave, or if those employees are simply more aware of their rights, or more litigious. However, the sheer number seems to be drawing needed attention to the issue:

Beyond causing headaches for their employers, the lawsuits are serving notice that the battle over “family values” is no longer just about gay marriage and abortion: it’s also about workplace attitudes that some advocates believe do significantly more to undermine family life than those controversial practices do.

The piece describes Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provisions that should allow employees to care for sick family members without fear of retribution. However, this is not always the case, and the effects aren’t only felt by women:

[Kevin] Knussman is a churchgoing Christian and a conservative Republican. In 1999, he also became the first person to prevail in a sex-discrimination lawsuit filed under the Family and Medical Leave Act. A jury awarded him $375,000 in damages, although a judge subsequently reduced the amount to $40,000. The suit was filed shortly after his wife, Kimberly, became pregnant and began to suffer from an array of medical complications, including pre-eclampsia, a potentially life-threatening condition. Wishing to be there to support her, Knussman wrote to his boss at the Maryland State Police to request four to eight weeks of leave, to which he was entitled under the F.M.L.A. He was told there was “no way” he could take more than two weeks. Later, after his wife gave birth to a baby girl, he asked for 30 days off, as is available to primary caregivers under Maryland law. A personnel manager for the state police, where he had worked for 17 years, denied the request, telling him, “Unless your wife is in a coma or dead, you can’t be primary care provider.” The same person also told him that God made women to have babies.

The entire article is 6 pages long, and is an interesting view into the struggle women (and men) face when attempting to provide appropriate care for themselves and their families.