2024
2023
- Attorney Courtney Presthus to Serve on Stark County Park Board
- Congratulations to ESL Attorneys Selected to the 2024 Edition of "Best Lawyers" and "Ones to Watch"
- Congratulations Attorney Shea Miller
- We have a winner!!
2022
- Lawyer Cerkoney is a Certified Farm Succession Coordinator
- Lawyers featured in Fall 2022 Gavel publication
- Ebeltoft . Sickler . Lawyers summer hours
- Ebeltoft . Sickler . Lawyers has a new associate attorney
- Ebeltoft Sickler's New Partner
- Young Lawyer Showcase
2021
2020
- Ebeltoft . Sickler sponsors CHI St. Alexius Health Dickinson Foundation's Golf Sports Classic
- Ebeltoft . Sickler sponsors Blue Hawk Booster Rendezvous
- Ebeltoft . Sickler sponsors DPS Foundation's Mystery Dinner
2019
- Ebeltoft . Sickler sponsors Empty Bowls Project distributed by the United Way
- Ebeltoft . Sickler sponsors Hill Top Heritage Foundation
- Ebeltoft . Sickler sponsors CHI St. Alexius Health Dickinson Foundation's Charity Ball
- Ebeltoft . Sickler sponsors the TEARS Foundation Rock & Walk for Babies
- Ebeltoft . Sickler sponsors CHI St. Alexius Health Dickinson and Sanford Health Dickinson’s Glow Run 5K
- Ebeltoft . Sickler sponsors 3rd Annual Hoedown for Hospice
- Ebeltoft . Sickler . Lawyers sponsor 6th Annual Players Sports Bar & Grill Scramble
- Ebeltoft . Sickler sponsors Run for Reason
- Ebeltoft . Sickler sponsors Dickinson Fire Department’s Safety Pup Program
- Ebeltoft . Sickler sponsors CHI St. Alexius Health Dickinson Foundation's Golf Sports Classic
- Ebeltoft . Sickler sponsors Raise the Woof's Microchip Event
- Ebeltoft . Sickler sponsors Badlands Big Sticks Summer Baseball League
- Ebeltoft . Sickler sponsors Relay for Life, Stark County Event
- Ebeltoft . Sickler sponsors DDA Inaugural Golf Scramble
- Ebeltoft . Sickler . Lawyers sponsor Imagination Library's Pizza & Pals
- Ebeltoft . Sickler . Lawyers sponsor 8th Annual Blue Hawk Booster Rendezvous
- Ebeltoft . Sickler Lawyers congratulates Attorney Courtney Presthus
- Ebeltoft . Sickler Lawyers sponsor the Dickinson Dream program
- Ebeltoft . Sickler sponsors DPS Foundation's Mystery Dinner
- North Dakota Supreme Court Success
- Ebeltoft . Sickler . Lawyers adds new Lawyer
2018
- Ebeltoft . Sickler sponsors Dickinson State University Department of Fine & Performing Arts.
- Ebeltoft . Sickler supports the Susan G. Komen Foundation
- Ebeltoft . Sickler supports Leadership Dickinson
- Ebeltoft . Sickler sponsors the Empty Bowls Project distributed by the United Way
- Ebeltoft . Sickler sponsors CHI St. Alexius Health Dickinson Foundation's Annual Charity Ball
- Ebeltoft . Sickler sponsors Rock and Walk for Babies
- Ebeltoft . Sickler sponsors the Dickinson Lions Club Summer Benefit Concert, “Tribute to Cold Hard Cash”.
- Ebeltoft . Sickler sponsors 6th Annual Players Sports Bar & Grill Scramble.
- Ebeltoft . Sickler sponsors CHI St. Alexius Health Dickinson and Sanford Health Dickinson’s Glow Run 5K
- Ebeltoft . Sickler sponsors St. Charles Catholic Church’s 5th Annual 5K Color Run
- Ebeltoft . Sickler sponsors 27th Annual CHI St. Alexius Heath Dickinson Foundation Golf Sports Classic
- Ebeltoft . Sickler . Lawyers sponsor First on First
- Ebeltoft . Sickler sponsors Dickinson Fire Department’s Safety Pup Program
- Ebeltoft . Sickler . Lawyers sponsors 5th Annual Fishn' for the Cure
- Ebeltoft . Sickler . Lawyers sponsor the Badlands Bigsticks
- Ebeltoft . Sickler Summer Hours
- Ebeltoft . Sickler . hires Summer Law Clerk
- Ebeltoft . Sickler . Lawyers sponsors the Bakken Paws Bake-Off
- Dickinson Press' "30 Under 30."
- North Dakota Supreme Court Success
- North Dakota Supreme Court Success
- Ebeltoft . Sickler . Lawyers sponsor 7th Annual Blue Hawk Booster Rendezvous
- Support of Dickinson Noon Lions Club Make-A-Wish Benefit
- Ebeltoft . Sickler sponsors DPS Foundation's Mystery Dinner Theater.
2017
- Ebeltoft . Sickler sponsors Dickinson State University’s Department of Fine & Performing Arts
- Ebeltoft . Sickler sponsors CHI St. Alexius Health Charity Ball
- Ebeltoft . Sickler sponsors 2017 Trinity Fall Gala
- Ebeltoft . Sickler . Lawyers sponsors Rock and Walk for Babies
- Ebeltoft . Sickler . Lawyers sponsors Downtown Fall Into Blues Festival
- Ebeltoft . Sickler . Lawyers supports Leadership Dickinson
- Ebeltoft . Sickler . Lawyers sponsors Lions Club Summer Benefit Concert
- Ebeltoft . Sickler Laywers sponsors Ukranian Festival
- Ebeltoft . Sickler . Lawyers sponsors American Cancer Society Relay for Life Stark County event
- Special Counsel Paul Ebeltoft's son's "Here Alone" on Netflix
- Ebeltoft . Sickler . Lawyers sponsors Shawn Stoltz in Lions All-Star Game
- Ebeltoft . Sickler . Lawyers sponsors 26th Annual CHI Golf Sports Classic
- Ebeltoft . Sickler . Lawyers a sponsor for First on First
- Ebeltoft . Sickler . hires summer law clerk
- Ebeltoft . Sickler . Lawyers donates to Belfield Theatre
- Ebeltoft . Sickler . Lawyers sponsors Dickinson Baseball Club
- Ebeltoft . Sickler . Lawyers sponsor of 6th Annual Blue Hawk Booster Rendezvous
- Ebeltoft . Sickler . Lawyers donates to Domestic Violence and Rape Crisis Center event
2016
- Ebeltoft . Sickler . Lawyers sponsors Empty Bowls Project
- Ebeltoft . Sickler . Lawyers sponsors 46th Annual Art Show
- Paul Ebeltoft elected Chairman of the Board of Directors of Prairie Public Broadcasting
- Sponsorship of Dickinson Catholic Schools
- Support of Local Girl Scout’s Project
- Sponsorship of Leadership Dickinson 2016-2017
- Sponsorship of 8th Annual Walk/Run for Diabetes Glow Run
- David Ebeltoft Recognized at Tribeca Film Festival
- Ebeltoft . Sickler Hires Summer Law Clerk
- New Associate
- Olivia Krebs Returns as Summer Law Clerk
- Attorney Presthus receives Theodore Roosevelt Honors Dickinson State University Leadership Program “Bully Pulpit Award”
- Donation to Camp ReCreation
- Dickinson Baseball Club, Inc. Sponsorship
- Support of Dickinson Area Chamber of Commerce 3 on 3 Hoopfest
- Support of Dickinson Noon Lions Club Make-A-Wish Benefit
- Blue Hawk Club Sponsorship
- Support of American Cancer Society Relay For Life
- Dickinson CommUniversity Sponsorship
2015
- Ebeltoft. Sickler obtains successful Montana Supreme Court Opinion
- Ebeltoft . Sickler . Lawyers sponsors Dickinson State University’s Fine and Performing Arts Society
- Sponsorship of Dickinson Catholic Schools
- Sponsorship of Dickinson Lions Club
- Lawyer Paul Ebeltoft has a new grandson
- Lawyer Randall Sickler receives Martindale Hubbell's "AV Preeminent" rating
- Donation to “Celebrate the West” Event
- Ebeltoft Sickler Lawyers Proud to Support Local Youth
- Attorney Grosz Recognized as Great Plains Rising Star
- Courtney Presthus Accepted into Association of Defense Trial Attorneys
- Ebeltoft . Sickler hires summer law clerk
- Ebeltoft . Sickler sponsors 2015 3-on-3 Hoopfest
- Ebeltoft . Sickler sponsor of Dickinson Baseball Club
- Attorney Nick Grant speaks to high school students during Roughrider Education Service Program's Career Expo
- Attorneys Nicholas Grant and Paul Ebeltoft successful in summary judgment
- Defense Research Institute confirms Attorney Courtney Presthus as State Representative for North Dakota
- Ebeltoft . Sickler . Lawyers celebrates 6th Anniversary
- Ebeltoft . Sickler . Lawyers sponsor of Annual Blue Hawk Rendezvous
- Ebeltoft . Sickler . Lawyers sponsors DIckinson Public School Foundation's Mystery Dinner Theater
- Attorney Nicholas Grant apointed Vice-Chair of DRI Trucking Law Committee Special Litigation Group
- Ebeltoft . Sickler . Lawyers included in U.S. News – Best Lawyers® “Best Law Firms” for 2015
- Ebeltoft . Sickler . Lawyers hosting Dickinson’s P.E.O. Chapter AD meeting
Nov 10, 2015
Is your company one of the increasing number that offer paid parental leave to your employees? If so, be alert to a new trend in the law: “family responsibilities discrimination” or “FRD”. The term was coined, as far as I know, by the WorkLife Law blog of the University of California Hastings College of Law. FRD is more completely defined by Worklife Law as “employment discrimination against workers based on their family caregiving responsibilities.”
In analyzing whether your parental leave policies meet muster, it is important to differentiate between three distinct types of leave: pregnancy or maternity leave, FMLA leave and parental leave. By definition, maternity leave applies to expectant mothers. In this column you have read about the nuances of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act that may make maternity leave less-than-routine, but HR departments are generally well-versed in accommodating medical issues during pregnancy and those arising when recovering from a delivery. FMLA leave is unpaid leave that employers with fifty or more employees must grant to employees who meet other basic eligibility qualifiers. Eligible male or female employees may take up to twelve weeks of unpaid leave (or must first use paid leave if the company requires) due to birth or adoption of a child or to care for a newborn or adopted child.
Parental leave policies are different. If an employer provides paid leave to female employees after childbirth to bond, as opposed to treat for a medical condition, then the law requires that the same amount of leave be given to male employees who want time with a newborn child or time to help his growing family. To provide otherwise is unlawful.
This was the substance of the charge correspondent, Josh Lev, made against CNN earlier this year. CNN’s parental leave policy gave 10 weeks of paid leave to biological mothers, 10 weeks to parents who adopt, but only two weeks of paid vacation to biological fathers. This policy discriminated against biological dads, Mr. Lev claimed. When the New York Times published an article about the case on September 15, 2015, Mr. Lev had already settled his EEOC complaint against CNN and the settlement terms were sealed. Noteworthy, though, is that CNN has changed its policy to give six weeks leave to all new parents, regardless of gender.
Within recent years, though, as reported in the same New York Times article, entitled “Attitudes Shift on Paid Leave: Dads Sue, Too”, lawsuits by males against employers who refuse to accommodate their roles as fathers are gaining steam nationwide. Is your company at risk?
The risk of bias fatigue
Is there a company orientation program that does not teach its supervisors the need for fair play, regardless of race, gender, religion or national origin? I hope not. Is there a company that does not have a policy to promptly investigate and correct incidents of sexual harassment? I hope not. But in the real world of the HR professional, where there is the possibility that someone will claim that your company’s daily decision-making is harassing, demeaning, discriminatory or retaliatory, there is a risk of overlooking the obvious – a phenomenon I have called bias fatigue. Bias fatigue desensitizes HR professionals to the unfairness of conduct that traditionally has been viewed as acceptable, particularly as it applies to “unprotected classes”. Stated bluntly, the traditional view in many companies has been that men should work. Women should take care of children. That husbands and wives should have equivalent responsibilities and equal paid leave to bond with a child is not a naturally occurring idea. Even if the thought occurs, the possibility of reducing paid leave benefits for women to “pay for” increasing paid time off for biological dads provides another dampening effect. Bias fatigue causes companies to “let this one go.”
The HR task
The CNN case and others by disgruntled fathers who increasingly see their role as fathers first and workers second, have started a ripple that may develop into a tsunami of claims. You, as an HR professional, need to be the bulwark for your company to avoid FRD. Be sure to look at your policies. Speak out if post-birth and work schedule policies do not allow men the same chances as women to take care of family duties.
If there are differences in your parental leave policies, make sure extra leave for mothers is justified by medical necessity. Any paid leave offered beyond the time a mother spends recovering from her pregnancy should be offered equally to both men and women.
Our interest in serving you
My law firm’s goal is to give understandable information and to foster discussion about real-life issues facing human resource professionals. If we are not achieving that goal or if you would like us to address other employment law issues, please email me at pebeltoft@ndlaw.com We promise to take your comments and ideas to heart.
Disclaimers
(Otherwise known as “the fine print”)
I make a serious effort to be accurate in my writings. These articles are not exhaustive treatises, though, so do not consider them complete or authoritative. Providing this information to you does not create an attorney-client relationship with my firm or me. Do not act upon the contents of this or of any article on our homepage or consider it a replacement for professional advice.
Reprinted with permission from an article submitted for publication in the November, 2015 Southwest Area Human Resource Association newsletter.
Who’s expecting? And what is he expecting?
By: Paul EbeltoftIs your company one of the increasing number that offer paid parental leave to your employees? If so, be alert to a new trend in the law: “family responsibilities discrimination” or “FRD”. The term was coined, as far as I know, by the WorkLife Law blog of the University of California Hastings College of Law. FRD is more completely defined by Worklife Law as “employment discrimination against workers based on their family caregiving responsibilities.”
In analyzing whether your parental leave policies meet muster, it is important to differentiate between three distinct types of leave: pregnancy or maternity leave, FMLA leave and parental leave. By definition, maternity leave applies to expectant mothers. In this column you have read about the nuances of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act that may make maternity leave less-than-routine, but HR departments are generally well-versed in accommodating medical issues during pregnancy and those arising when recovering from a delivery. FMLA leave is unpaid leave that employers with fifty or more employees must grant to employees who meet other basic eligibility qualifiers. Eligible male or female employees may take up to twelve weeks of unpaid leave (or must first use paid leave if the company requires) due to birth or adoption of a child or to care for a newborn or adopted child.
Parental leave policies are different. If an employer provides paid leave to female employees after childbirth to bond, as opposed to treat for a medical condition, then the law requires that the same amount of leave be given to male employees who want time with a newborn child or time to help his growing family. To provide otherwise is unlawful.
This was the substance of the charge correspondent, Josh Lev, made against CNN earlier this year. CNN’s parental leave policy gave 10 weeks of paid leave to biological mothers, 10 weeks to parents who adopt, but only two weeks of paid vacation to biological fathers. This policy discriminated against biological dads, Mr. Lev claimed. When the New York Times published an article about the case on September 15, 2015, Mr. Lev had already settled his EEOC complaint against CNN and the settlement terms were sealed. Noteworthy, though, is that CNN has changed its policy to give six weeks leave to all new parents, regardless of gender.
Within recent years, though, as reported in the same New York Times article, entitled “Attitudes Shift on Paid Leave: Dads Sue, Too”, lawsuits by males against employers who refuse to accommodate their roles as fathers are gaining steam nationwide. Is your company at risk?
The risk of bias fatigue
Is there a company orientation program that does not teach its supervisors the need for fair play, regardless of race, gender, religion or national origin? I hope not. Is there a company that does not have a policy to promptly investigate and correct incidents of sexual harassment? I hope not. But in the real world of the HR professional, where there is the possibility that someone will claim that your company’s daily decision-making is harassing, demeaning, discriminatory or retaliatory, there is a risk of overlooking the obvious – a phenomenon I have called bias fatigue. Bias fatigue desensitizes HR professionals to the unfairness of conduct that traditionally has been viewed as acceptable, particularly as it applies to “unprotected classes”. Stated bluntly, the traditional view in many companies has been that men should work. Women should take care of children. That husbands and wives should have equivalent responsibilities and equal paid leave to bond with a child is not a naturally occurring idea. Even if the thought occurs, the possibility of reducing paid leave benefits for women to “pay for” increasing paid time off for biological dads provides another dampening effect. Bias fatigue causes companies to “let this one go.”
The HR task
The CNN case and others by disgruntled fathers who increasingly see their role as fathers first and workers second, have started a ripple that may develop into a tsunami of claims. You, as an HR professional, need to be the bulwark for your company to avoid FRD. Be sure to look at your policies. Speak out if post-birth and work schedule policies do not allow men the same chances as women to take care of family duties.
If there are differences in your parental leave policies, make sure extra leave for mothers is justified by medical necessity. Any paid leave offered beyond the time a mother spends recovering from her pregnancy should be offered equally to both men and women.
Our interest in serving you
My law firm’s goal is to give understandable information and to foster discussion about real-life issues facing human resource professionals. If we are not achieving that goal or if you would like us to address other employment law issues, please email me at pebeltoft@ndlaw.com We promise to take your comments and ideas to heart.
Disclaimers
(Otherwise known as “the fine print”)
I make a serious effort to be accurate in my writings. These articles are not exhaustive treatises, though, so do not consider them complete or authoritative. Providing this information to you does not create an attorney-client relationship with my firm or me. Do not act upon the contents of this or of any article on our homepage or consider it a replacement for professional advice.
Reprinted with permission from an article submitted for publication in the November, 2015 Southwest Area Human Resource Association newsletter.