Working Parents Get Antidiscrimination Help

Parents who are discriminated against by their employer have an ally: the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In guidelines issued May 23, the EEOC identifies numerous situations where employers might break the law by treating caregivers differently than childless or single employees.

Examples include treating absence due to childcare responsibilities differently from other reasons; assuming childless, married women won't be able to keep up "when" they have a child; and treating men with childcare responsibility differently from women.

The new rules do not create a new protected class. "The federal EEO laws do not prohibit discrimination against caregivers per se," say the guidelines, but "there are circumstances in which discrimination against caregivers might constitute unlawful disparate treatment."

The guidelines do not alter the basic rule that the only permissible discrimination is for job performance.