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Professionals Who Care limited protection for employed caregivers

#9 of 12 
There are Limited Protections for Employed Caregivers

The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) offers some employees certain provisions for caregiving, but its scope is limited and leaves an estimated 40% - or an astounding 13 million - of employed caregivers with limited rights. 

 

Read more below on:

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FMLA and What is Family?

Lack of Discrimination Protections

Importance of Supervisory Training

Employer Beware

Mother and a Child Professionals Who Care
FMLA and What is Family?

Professionals Who Cares is not a legal expert. Please consult an expert for legal advice. We do have some generalities about FMLA that we believe to be true, including that FMLA only covers employees who meet the below criteria:

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  • Have been working at the same place for at least 1 year

  • Have worked at least 1250 hours in the year prior to needing leave

  • Work at a place with at least 50 employees

  • Have immediate family members who have serious health issues, such as spouse, child, or parent

 

FMLA is valuable, but the restrictions are difficult for caregivers who do not qualify. For example, FMLA only applies to caregiving for certain family members, and it does not encompass the caring that occurs outside of the traditional family framework - simply no longer reflecting the realities of today's support systems. 

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If an employed caregiver is one of the 13 million in the United States without FMLA protections, there can be enhanced stress and difficulty in managing both work and caregiving responsibilities, lessened when an employer chooses to opt-in on creating an inclusive and compassionate workplace.

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Lack of Discrimination Protections

Caregiver discrimination has continued to rise in the workplace. Additionally, part of the struggle for employed caregivers is that there are no clear discrimination protections. Caregiving status is not explicitly a legally protected category at the federal level.

 

While a disabled person has certain rights for reasonable accommodations, the caregiver who needs to drive the disabled person to the doctor’s office and assist in the communication in the appointment is not automatically eligible for protections.

Supervisor Training

Employed caregivers are often vulnerable to the decisions and treatment of their supervisors, and the supervisors have received little, if any, training on managing employed caregivers. Supervisor training is important for the following reasons:

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  • Lack of supervisor support is one of the biggest stressors for employed caregivers, significantly worsening mental health and increasing stress and depression

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  • Effective supervisor training can enable employers to offer resources to employed caregivers, similar to supports for employees who are facing their own health struggles, expecting a child, facing mental health challenges, or approaching retirement. It has been proven that most supervisors and employees are unaware of caregiving supports, and effective training could improve the current dilemma.

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  • Supervisor training helps reduce unconscious bias against people who do not conform to the ideal worker standard.

 

  • Supervisor training can mitigate the potential legal risk employers face when discriminating against employees.

Employer Beware: There are Successful Cases against Caregiver Discrimination

While there are limited legal protections for employed caregivers, there are some protections, and cases against employers regarding caregiving discrimination are on the rise. It is a goal for Professionals Who Care to create additional resources in this area. For now, below are a few highlights.

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  • The Americans with Disabilities Act: The Americans with Disabilities Act stipulates that it is illegal to treat employees differently simply because of their relationship or association with someone who is disabled. "In 2016, an Albuquerque doctor’s office agreed to pay $165,000 to settle an EEOC suit involving Melissa Yalch, a temporary staffing agency placement it had promised to hire as a full-time employee but then let go after learning Yalch had a child with disabilities. Her supervisor told her by text, 'We have no room here for a disability, and I will not accommodate.'" (9)

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  • Gender-Based Discrimination: Because women carry an outsized portion of caregiving responsibilities, discriminating against a female caregiver can put the employer at risk of gender-based discrimination.

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  • State-Based Protections: Some states do provide protections based on familial status, so employers can experience legal risk based on their local employment laws.

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While employed caregivers have limited protections, it is in the best interest of the employer to provide an inclusive environment within their organization.

Limited Protections Resources

1. Anderson, S. N. R., Falkowski, B., Story, J., Grandjean, B., & Leveque, K. (2020). Confronting the Caregiver Bias COVID-19’s Impact on Women in the Workplace. Risk Management (00355593), 67(8), 18–22. 2. Boumans, N. P., & Dorant, E. (2020). The relationships of job and family demands and job and family resources with family caregivers’ strain. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, 35(2), 567–576. https://doi.org/10.1111/scs.12873 3. Hirsh, C. E., Treleaven, C., & Fuller, S. (2020). Caregivers, Gender, and the Law: An Analysis of Family Responsibility Discrimination Case Outcomes. Gender & Society, 34(5), 760–789. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243220946335 4. Li, A., Shaffer, J., & Bagger, J. (2015). The psychological well-being of disability caregivers: Examining the roles of family strain, family-to-work conflict, and perceived supervisor support. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 20(1), 40–49. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037878 5. Mofidi, A., Tompa, E., Williams, A., Yazdani, A., Lero, D., & Mortazavi, S. B. (2019). Impact of a Caregiver-Friendly Workplace Policies Intervention: A Prospective Economic Evaluation. Journal of Occupational & Environmental Medicine, 61(6), 461–468. https://doi.org/10.1097/JOM.0000000000001564 6. Meyer, K., Rath, L., Gassoumis, Z., Kaiser, N., & Wilber, K. (2019). What Are Strategies to Advance Policies Supporting Family Caregivers? Promising Approaches From a Statewide Task Force. Journal of Aging & Social Policy, 31(1), 66–84. https://doi.org/10.1080/08959420.2018.1485395 7. O’Connor, L. T., & Cech, E. A. (2018). Not Just a Mothers’ Problem: The Consequences of Perceived Workplace Flexibility Bias for All Workers. Sociological Perspectives, 61(5), 808–829. https://doi.org/10.1177/0731121418768235 8. Weldon-Johns, M. (2015). From modern workplaces to modern families – re-envisioning the work–family conflict. Journal of Social Welfare & Family Law, 37(4), 395–415. https://doi.org/10.1080/09649069.2015.1121964 9. Zeidner, R. (2018). FAMILY TIME: Caregiver discrimination cases are on the rise--and the odds aren’t in employers’ favor. HR Magazine, 63(6), 46–52.

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