in-office vs. at-home employee discrimination

[MagPetal]

Living in State of Tennessee but working/telecommuniting for a national company with employees in all contiguous states. (My "home office" is in San Diego and local office unavailable; therefore unable to qualify for in-office status.)

SITUATION: My company was recently acquired by another company who has instituted practices which appear to discriminate between "in-office" employees (IOE) versus "at-home" employees (AHE) by requiring the same number of weekly work hours (40) and production rates (medical transcription) but greatly reducing benefits for at-home employees; i.e., paid time off (PTO) reduced from 23 days for IOE to 3 days for AHE, medical/dental insurance costs doubled for AHE, company-paid life insurance and long-term disability totally denied to AHE.

There are more than 2000 employees for this company with greater than 50% who are AHE. Therefore many people in many states are affected by these new policies. While this does not fall under standard discrimination practices such as age, gender, race, etc., it certainly appears discriminatory to me since equal "benefits" not given for equal "work." I have already called EEOC and was told nothing can be done under existing guidelines.

Is what the company doing legal? Could a (winnable) class-action suit be brought against them to require equal benefits for equal work? Who could be contacted to institute such a suit? What can be done to correct this injustice? Where do we go from here? Please help.

 

[I AM ALWAYS LIABLE]

My response:

I could not locate any "cause of action" for discrimination based upon your theory of "equal benefits." It would appear to me, however, that you are witnessing the beginnings of a AHE phaseout, and one of the ways of doing this is to start cutting back on benefits.

Good luck to you.

IAAL

 

[Beth3]

Your employer isn't obligated to offer benefits to any employees at all.

It is perfectly legal for employers to offer different benefits to different classes of employees. They can "discriminate" based on exempt/non-exempt status, management/non-management, office/factory, in-office workers. vs at-home workers and so on.

You don't remotely have a cause of action. You are free to pursue other employment opportunities that provide the benefits you desire.

 

[MagPetal]

in-office vs. at-home employee

Thank you very much, I Am Always Liable and Beth3, for your replies. Looks like all of us are out of luck. Your replies are greatly appreciated. /s/MagPetal