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Family Medical Leave and Parenting Discrimination
The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), like the ADA, includes an accommodation mandate. The FMLA was intended to reshape the work-family balance in the United States, offering leave to workers with a new child, a sick loved one, or serious health issues. The law was also intended to address a gender imbalance in caretaking--one with potent spillover effects when it comes to sex discrimination.
But the FMLA has significant limits. It provides only three months of leave, none of them paid, and covers only a subset of workers-- it applies only to employers with 50 or more employees, and does not cover part-time employees, first-year employees, and even employees who work for small offices of larger employers.
We will consider the two main causes of action under the FMLA--FMLA interference and retaliation. We will then explore how the FMLA fits in the broader landscape of discrimination on the basis of caretaking responsibilities--and whether there is a better alternative.
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