The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently filed a lawsuit in federal court against cosmetics firm Estée Lauder, alleging that the company’s paid parental leave plan discriminates against male employees by offering them less paid time off than it offers to female employees.
While the lawsuit is only in its early stages, we thought it was important to highlight given the growing focus among employers on bolstering paid family leave benefits. Despite their obvious value to employees, it signals that the EEOC is prepared to scrutinize these benefits to ensure that they are not applied in what the agency believes to be a discriminatory way.
According to the suit, EEOC v. Estée Lauder, Case No. 2:17-cv-03897-JP (E.D. Pa. 2017), under the company’s policy biological fathers can take only two weeks of “secondary caregiver” bonding leave, while biological mothers can take six weeks of maternity leave for purposes of bonding. EEOC claims this amounts to gender discrimination because it offers different amounts of paid bonding leave to employees based on their sex.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.