The Center for WorkLife Law is an advocacy and research organization at UC Hastings Law that seeks to advance racial, gender, and class equity. At WorkLife Law, we address inequality at a structural level by developing and implementing concrete, evidence-based interventions in schools and workplaces and changing public policy at the state and national levels. We are extremely strategic in how we approach each structural intervention, forging partnerships with grassroots groups and field experts to identify the best change levers to tackle the problem at hand. With our interventions, we aim to produce dramatic changes within a two to five year timeframe. Our main areas of impact are economic security, maternal & child health, education equity, and racial and gender justice in the workplace. Throughout the pandemic, our team has also mobilized a COVID-19 emergency response, applying our legal expertise to help protect workers’ rights during the crisis.
These are just some of the problems that U.S. workers currently face. At the Center for WorkLife Law, we intervene on these problems through both systems-level change and individual interventions.
Roughly 41 million Americans are caretakers for adults. Our report with the AARP, Caring Locally for Caregivers: How State and Local Laws Protect Family Caregivers from Discrimination at Work, outlines laws throughout the U.S. that protect caregivers from workplace discrimination.
WorkLife Law’s COVID-19 Helpline was recently featured in the New York Times Know Your Rights guide for working parents during the pandemic as a part of their “Primal Scream” expose on the impact of the coronavirus on working mothers in America.
WorkLife Law Staff Attorney Juliana Franco was recently honored as one of the first annual Jackie Speier Women of Courage. Juliana was recognized for her tireless work to protect the legal rights of low-wage workers, including pregnant and postpartum farmworkers in California. We’re so proud of you, Juliana!
