Can I take legal action against my employer for not scheduling me? Is this discrimination?
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Can I take legal action against my employer for not scheduling me? Is this discrimination?
I have a job and when I started I was
part time. Just recently my boyfriend
and I have been given temporary custody
of his son through the state. The
child was in foster care and we were
able to pull him out in order to get
him out we had to under go background
checks, finger prints and a home study.
Anyone that will watch him has to have
the same done. Now my boyfriend his
father works out of town and is only
home for a week ever so often, so I am
the primary care giver, and since we
can’t afford child care I have had to
cut my hours back at work to only being
able to work during the kids school
hours which is 830-2tuesday-friday. At
first I was getting one day a week now I
can go a few weeks before they will put
me on the schedule. I feel that because
I’m a mom and have kids I am being
punished because I can’t afford child
care. Is there any legal action I can
take. Are there any laws against being
treated like this.
Asked on November 28, 2017 under Employment Labor Law, Florida
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 7 years ago | Contributor
This would not be illegal discrimination based on what you write, and there is most likely nothing you can do:
1) Neither federal law nor your state's law protects employees on the basis of being parents or their family status or child care needs: it is legal (morally wrong, but still legal) to schedule less time for parents or otherwise "discriminate" against them in your state.
2) If you voluntarily limited your hours (to only 8:30 - 2:00, Tuesday to Friday), you resticted your own availability and the employer would typically not, even in a state (unlike your own) which did protect parents at work, have to go out of its way to find work for or otherwise schedule a person who has made herself so relatively unavailable.
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