Yesterday, the EEOC announced the $1.1M settlement of a class action lawsuit asserting reverse discrimination under the Equal Pay Act and Title VII in favor of 210 new fathers who were denied parental leave benefits provided to new mothers by the Estee Lauder Company. The EEOC alleged in the lawsuit that it filed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania at Civil Action No. 2:17-cv-03897-JP that the employer provided “new fathers, less paid leave to bond with a newborn, or with a newly adopted or fostered child, than it provided new mothers. The parental leave at issue was separate from medical leave received by mothers for childbirth and related issues. The EEOC also alleged that the company unlawfully denied new fathers return-to-work benefits provided to new mothers, such as temporary modified work schedules, to ease the transition to work after the arrival of a new child and exhaustion of paid parental leave.” In particular, male employees received two weeks of paid parental leave, compared to the six weeks of parental leave that female employees received after their medical leaves had ended.
The Consent Decree, which was entered yesterday, requires Estee
Lauder to administer parental leave and return-to-work policies in a
non-discriminatory manner. Estee Lauder recently
implemented “a revised parental leave policy that provides all eligible
employees, regardless of gender or caregiver status, the same 20 weeks of paid
leave for child bonding and the same six-week flexibility period upon returning
to work. For biological mothers, these parental paid leave benefits begin after
any period of medical leave occasioned by childbirth. The benefits apply
retroactively to all employees who experienced a qualifying event (e.g. birth,
adoption, foster placement) since Jan. 1, 2018. The decree also requires that
Estée Lauder provide training on unlawful sex discrimination and allow
monitoring by the EEOC.”
NOTICE: This summary is designed merely to inform and alert you of
recent legal developments. It does not constitute legal advice and does not
apply to any particular situation because different facts could lead to
different results. Information here can be changed or amended without
notice. Readers should not act upon this information without legal advice. If
you have any questions about anything you have read, you should consult with or
retain an employment attorney
