Aid for Employees Seeking COVID-Related Leave of Absence
The Center for WorkLife Law is offering free tools for workers who need to take leave from their jobs due to the coronavirus. The Families First Coronavirus Response Act provided paid leave for workers who need it for certain caregiving and health reasons, but applying for leave can be complicated.
The has 聽that include information about employee legal rights and聽聽that ask for all the information required by law for an employer to grant a leave request. Workers who want to request leave can simply complete the form and give it to their employer.
Online help is available for employees seeking:
Leave for Themselves:
Leave to Care for Others:
The Center鈥檚 site contains links to state unemployment offices, in addition to a聽 with information on sick leave and emergency COVID leave, and .
Distinguished Professor Joan C. Williams, Founding Director of the Center, that caregiver discrimination may increase during the pandemic as employers scrutinize employee productivity, and thus litigation. 鈥淲e are at risk for a whole new round and increased interest in family responsibilities discrimination,鈥 Williams told Bloomberg. 鈥淵ou have a recipe for discrimination. Inevitably, there will be assumptions about who is valuable and who is performing up to snuff. That鈥檚 where the lawsuits start.鈥
The Center has a hotline for employees needing COVID-related assistance and is available for help via email. Calls and emails to the helpline are confidential to the extent permissible by law. Call (415) 851-3308 or email COVID19Helpline@worklifelaw.org.
About the Center for WorkLife Law
The Center for WorkLife Law is a research and advocacy organization at UC Law SF College of the Law that seeks to advance gender and racial equity in the workplace and in higher education. WorkLife Law focuses on initiatives with the potential to produce concrete social, legal, and institutional change within a two- to five-year timeframe. Current major initiatives include programs for聽, eliminating barriers for聽听补苍诲听, preventing聽, and helping companies to聽聽in the workplace聽and create more聽 for their hourly workers.