Thursday, March 19, 2020

Legally actionable?

My wife just received a notice from her employer:

All employees are required to come into work unless you are diagnosed with COVID19, in which case you will receive full pay. (Here is the messed up part) If you are a parent of minor children and cannot find daycare for your children because the facility has closed, you can work from home and still receive full pay.

So there are different rules for people with and without kids. I struggle to see how this is legal. If it is possible to do your job from home, should it matter whether or not you have children?

We may be contacting an attorney.

2 comments:

Miguel GFZ said...

Is she essential worker? If she is, they may push, but I don't know how far.
We are in a At Will state for employment, though.

If she can work from home, tell her to forcefully make the case with her boss

Divemedic said...

The problem that I have isn't whether or not she is essential. We are talking about two different people with identical jobs- the only difference is one has kids, and the other does not. That difference is being used to decide who can work from home and who cannot.