Updated EEOC Guidelines FAQ Series: Caretaking-Related Guidance

With jurisdictions across the country slowly easing up on rigorous closures and other restrictions, employers are itching to resume operations and reclaim some semblance of normalcy. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) has updated its guidance for employers dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. The following FAQs address the EEOC’s caretaking-related guidance.

The EEOC’s Updated Guidance: Caretaking-Related Guidance

If an employer provides flexible working accommodations to employees with children during the pandemic, are there sex discrimination issues?

• Not necessarily. An employer may provide telework, modified schedules, or other benefits to employees with children without running into sex discrimination issues. Employers may provide flexible working accommodations as long as they are not treating employees differently based on sex or other protected characteristics.

• By way of example, female employees cannot be given more favorable treatment than their male counterparts based on a gender-based assumption about who has caretaking responsibilities for children.

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