Time - USA (2021-03-15)

73

Benjamin Yormak, Martinez’s lawyer.

“We’re getting phone calls now all the

time: ‘My childcare crapped out on me,

and I got fired.’ My answer has to be, un-

less you fit into this tiny, tiny, tiny box,

society’s failed you.”

At least 58 lawsuits have been filed

in the U.S. from April 2020 to February

2021 that allege an employer denied

emergency parental leave, did not inform

employees of their right to take emer-

gency leave, or fired employees for ask-

ing to work remotely or take leave while

schools and day cares were closed. Most

plaintiffs claimed their former employ-

ers violated their rights under FFCRA,

but some in cities like New York, where

caregivers are a protected class, sued for

or if anything had been violated,” she

says. “It just felt so wrong to me.” In

July, she filed a lawsuit claiming that

her former employer broke federal law

in refusing to grant her leave and firing

her. According to the complaint, when

she asked to work from home, the com-

pany told her, “If you cannot come in due

to childcare... the position is vacated.

Meaning you no longer have a job here.”

Then, the lawsuit states, when she com-

plained to HR, she was ordered to return

to work, but upon doing so, she was writ-

ten up for poor attendance. After she ob-

jected, she was fired. Her manager, she

alleges, later asked Martinez’s husband

to have her delete the texts the manager

had sent her. Her husband refused and

quit, leaving them without any income

in an economic shutdown. “I was like,

We’re going to be homeless,” she says. (A

representative for the company declined

to comment on the lawsuit but said the

owners of its practices have offered many

COVID-19-related benefits to its staff.)

More than 2.3 million women have

dropped out of the labor force since Feb-

ruary 2020, according to the Bureau of

Labor Statistics. A Census Bureau and

Federal Reserve analysis found that 1 in 3

women not working in July cited child-

care issues as the reason, and Pew found

that mothers of children 12 and under

were three times more likely than fathers

to have lost work between February and

August. Latina and Black women have

been hit hardest, and women’s labor-

force participation reached a 33-year low

in January. Economists have dubbed this

recession a “she cession.”

The Center for WorkLife Law tells

TIME that since the start of the pan-

demic, they have received seven times

more calls than usual to their help line

with questions and complaints about

discrimination, but most mothers have

no recourse. Congress hastily passed the

Families First Corona virus Response Act

(FFCRA) in March 2020, which offered

up to 12 weeks of paid leave to some

workers whose children’s schools and

day cares had closed. But the legisla-

tion strictly limited who qualified, and

the benefits expired at the end of 2020.

“You’re screwed in 2021,” says

violations of human- rights laws.

Still, even for those who have the

opportunity to fight in the courts, the

chances of restitution are hazy. Feder-

ally mandated paid parental leave is new

to the U.S., so most of these parents are

entering uncharted legal territory. But

many of the women TIME spoke to for

this story described how wrong it felt to

be forced to choose between caring for

their children in the midst of a public-

health crisis and earning income to sup-

port them. “It’s so unfair,” says Martinez.

“And I don’t even think we’re realizing

the scope of it.”

a Mother’s place in the Ameri-

can workforce has always felt tenu-

ous at best. The U.S. remains the only

● Tamara Brown and her son near
their home in Southfield, Mich.

‘I think he liked

the Lauren before—

no-responsibilities

Lauren—better

than this NEW

MOM who needed

accommodations.’

—Lauren Martinez