Lewis & Clark Law Review
First Page
529
Abstract
The 2023 Super Bowl featured a short film about the #WorkingWithCancer Pledge, a business initiative supporting employees with cancer, to over 100 million viewers. This film highlighted the struggles of a disease that affects a shocking 50% of individuals. It also underscored the need for a broader and more impactful approach ensuring that people with cancer have as full and equitable opportunities to work as other employees. While cancer in the workplace is increasingly common, misconceptions and stigma surrounding cancer exacerbate the gaps in legal protections for both employees with cancer and their employers. Employees with cancer need better legal protection against employment discrimination and wrongful termination. To ensure better treatment for workers facing cancer, this Article identifies impactful legal reforms and new models of private sector support. It explores the difficulties of cancer at work, delves into the complexities of nondisclosure, and discusses the challenges of balancing treatment with employment. It then proposes specific legislative changes and private measures for workplaces to better address cancer discrimination and disclosure at work. In doing so, it expands the scholarly dialogue about how legal reforms and private measures can dovetail to provide more comprehensive and much-needed support for employees with cancer.
Cancer represents a multifaceted challenge for employers and employees, extending beyond legal frameworks to encompass societal attitudes and organizational cultures. Cancer itself may limit an employee’s ability to work. Beyond cancer itself, stigma and misconceptions about what people with cancer can do often impede fair treatment in professional settings. For example, fear of discrimination prevents many from disclosing their diagnoses, affecting their job security and limiting their treatment choices.
Current business efforts and laws do too little to help those with cancer at work. Existing legislation that might protect sick employees suffers from serious shortcomings in the unique context of cancer. Antidiscrimination laws like the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and leave laws like the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) do not give workers with cancer reliable and effective protection because of the episodic, expensive, and highly variable nature of the disease. The #WorkingWithCancer Pledge initiative aims to alleviate job insecurity for employees with cancer, urging larger companies to set an example as signatories. This is an admirable but insufficient means of supplementing legal protections. Business promises of support like the #WorkingWithCancer Pledge are usually not legally binding. Even when promised benefits are enforced, company insolvency may limit workers’ ability to receive them. Without substantive legal changes, such commitments fail to provide the protection employees need.
This Article explores the ways in which current federal laws and private initiatives fail to meet the needs of people with cancer and their employers. It proposes three specific improvements to increase their employment opportunities and experience. The proposed reforms include (1) amending the ADA to better align legal protections with the unique challenges of cancer; (2) expanding access and benefits of the FMLA supplemented by a broader adoption of progressive state laws; and (3) enhancing business initiatives in specific ways. The private sector initiatives suggested here include adopting workplace navigators, leveraging artificial intelligence as a resource, and replicating successful cancer awareness programs in other countries like the United Kingdom. These reforms are necessary to provide practical support to employees and mitigate the impact of cancer in the workplace.
Recommended Citation
Hannah R. Weiser & Elizabeth Brown,
Curing the Cancer Pledge: Three Legal Reforms to Support Employees with Cancer,
29
Lewis & Clark L. Rev.
529
(2025).
Available at:
https://lawcommons.lclark.edu/lclr/vol29/iss3/4