...Employment Law: Workplace Racial Discrimination October 3, 2011 Employment Law: Workplace Racial Discrimination A number of federal and state laws prohibit racial discrimination. Racial discrimination is the practice of letting a person's race or skin color unfairly become a factor when deciding who receives a job, promotion, or other employment benefit. It most often affects minority individuals who feel they have been unfairly discriminated against in favor of a Caucasian (or white) individual, but there have been recent cases where whites have claimed that reverse discrimination has occurred—that is, the minority received unfairly favorable treatment at the expense of the white individual. Racial discrimination in the workplace has been a challenging issue for the United States since awareness rose in the 1960s. Blacks and other minority workers have faced intimidation, harassment and subtler forms of racism such as the difficulty of landing a job or promotion, even when they have the requisite qualifications. The United States has been actively combating racial discrimination in the workplace for 46 years, yet challenges remain. Many people do not really know much information on how racial discrimination at workplaces may take place, but many concerns can be answered with these following questions: 1. How long has racial discrimination at workplaces been going on for? 2. What are the laws on racial discrimination about? 3. What are some reasons for racial discrimination...
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...Employment Discrimination | Employment discrimination simply means imbalanced and biased treatment meted out to some employees on the basis of prejudice. This has been an important and grave issue of concern for companies across the world. Such discrimination occurs when an employer singles out any one employee or a group on the basis of age, race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, religion and other reasons. Workplace discrimination can take place in a number of forms that include illegal hiring and firing, on-the-job harassment, denial of a worker’s promotions or raises and unequal pay. For this reason, several laws have been created to protect the people from discrimination and retaliation from their employers. Read on to know the different types of discrimination in the workplace. Gender Discrimination Also known as sexual discrimination or sex-based discrimination, gender discrimination takes place when one gender is preferred over the other. In this case, one employee is treated in an unfair manner or inequitable manner by his employer, on the basis of the employee’s gender. Racial Discrimination Racial discrimination is the most common form of employment discrimination. Employees are treated harshly or differently based on their race or ethnicity. Though there are laws that prohibit employers to deny a job-seeker employment opportunity because of his/her racial group and characteristics, it is a common practice in most of the workplaces. Age Discrimination...
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...BEHAVIOR DISCRIMINATION AT WORKPLACE DESCRIPTION OF EVENT OR INCIDENT The workplace is a significant part of an individual’s life that affects his or her life and the well-being of the community. The average adult spends much of his or her life working, as much as a quarter or perhaps a third of his waking life in work. As much as a fifth to a quarter of the variation in adult life, satisfaction can be accounted for by satisfaction with work (Campbell, Converse, & Rodgers, 1976). The workplace diversity is increasing more than ever before. Almost all employees face some problem at their workplace. There are various kinds of problems that a person could come across in his or her workplace. The workplace event or incident that we are going to discuss here is based on discrimination at the workplace. Discrimination at the workplace means subjecting an employee, on the basis of reasons such as race, religion, gender, or nationality, to behavior or treatment that puts him or her at disadvantage as compared to other employees, or causes physical or mental discomfort (Katz & Moore, 2004). Discrimination by race, of course, is still common, though it varies for different races. Discrimination at workplace is unethical, besides being illegal in many countries. In addition, workplace discrimination is also likely to impact the employee morale, motivation and the good will of a company adversely. The awareness on discriminatory behaviors in the workplace has been increasing...
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...locally and internationally. Thus, it is crucial to manage diversity efficiently in order to benefit from its advantages and eliminate its disadvantages. When diversity is not managed correctly, discrimination arises. So, to protect employees’ rights, promote respect and fairness, and motivate staff, discrimination legislations took place. According to Pilbeam & Corbridge (2010, p. 231) “the legislation covers sex, marital status, race, ethnic origin, disability, religion or belief, sexual orientation, ex-offenders where a conviction is legally spent, and age”. The legislations are enforced to protect employees from (indirect, n.d.): Direct discrimination: when employees are treated based on their age, race, religion, etc. For example, an employee receives a salary increase because he is older than another employee although the younger one is more productive. Indirect discrimination: when employees are isolated based on an unjustified company policy. For example, only good looking employees are allowed to go on business trips. Harassment: when employees are abused verbally or physically. For example, making fun of an employee because he’s fat is not right. Victimization: when employees are punished for raising a concern about a discriminatory act. For example, an employee gets a salary deduction for voicing out. In addition, legislations ensure that employees have equal opportunities regardless of their ethnicity or gender. For instance, a male and a female should...
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...BUS670 MBA Program Legal/Ethical Issue March 2012 Today’s business world presents numerous ethical issues. In today’s world above board/moral ethics in organizations do not often materialize intuitively. Organization must strive to provide employees with a clear understanding of the overall company vision. This will aid employees in practicing the code of ethics, policies and procedures in the workplace. Companies must be unwavering in continuously delivering the uppermost ethics of provision in which customers, applicants and employees are entitled to under fair business practices. One major core value is to uphold responsible and fair business practices. A core dedication to sponsoring and upholding the extreme parallel of ethical values relative to all business actions is essential. In this paper, I will analyze a legal/ethical issues relating to current, previous, and/or potential future work environments. Harassment, discrimination, and retaliation will also be briefly discussed as well as ideas for corrective actions pertaining to issues. Because many organizations miss the mark on properly addressing ethical &legal conflicts concerning employees; the issues are ongoing and often damage the work environment, sometimes resulting in lawsuits. What is business ethics? Business ethics is the behavior that a business abides by in their daily transactions with the world. This also includes the individual interactions with customers. The moral code of a specific...
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...CapraTek: Workplace Discrimination JacQuetta Mann Professor Robert Bigelow HRM 5118 December 5, 2015 Introduction CapraTek is a successful organization and like all organizations, they have come across some issues dealing with work place discrimination. The company has a potential problem that needs to be looked into and resolved. The issue is that a group of employees were in the lunchroom on a break. They were apparently watching a video of something on someone's tablet and the volume was apparently rather loud. One of CapraTek’s clients was passing through the room, heard at least part of the video and found it extremely inappropriate. Due to this incident CapraTek may have lost a major order because of this. There were several employees who were involved and have issued statements about the incident (CapraTek Media Case). CapraTek’s way of communication their policies and missions could be an explanation on why this type of behavior is happening. An organization has to make sure that their mission and policies are communicated with in the organization. There needs to be an updated discrimination policy that should be communicated to employees. The policy should state that a discrimination policy has been implemented due to concerns of discrimination acts rising. The purpose of the policy is to provide information about ways to prevent and respond to discrimination if it shall happen. This way CapraTek can achieve the...
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...liabilities and lawsuits by employees that a cold management style becomes the result. Human resource managers must be well informed of regulations and laws in place that protect employee and employer rights and enforce employer responsibilities as they pertain to legal, safety, and regulatory issues in the workplace. There are many legal issues that companies must adhere to that are enforced by the Department of Labor. These laws are set in place to protect both the employee and the employer and to ensure fairness and ethical behaviors within the workplace. Some of the legal aspects of human resources that are governed by the Department of Labor include, but are not limited to; wages and hours, workplace safety, and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) ("U.s. Department Of Labor", n.d.). Employers are required to pay minimum wage to non-exempt employees for regular hours worked and time and a half pay when overtime hours are worked. The standards for wage and overtime pay are set forth by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), while the Wage and Hour Division enforces these standards. Additionally, businesses that employ minors under the age of 16 (or age 18, depending on the job), are closely monitored for compliance by the Wage and Hour Division as well ("U.s. Department Of Labor", n.d.). Workplace safety is another legal issue that human resources must oversee. Employers are responsible for ensuring that their employees’ work environment is safe and free of hazards. This...
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...Obesity in the Workplace Dorothy Fitzsimmons Webster University Problem Over one-third of American adults are obese. This paper will research discrimination against obese people in the workplace and how companies are accommodating the obese employee and promoting healthy lifestyles. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), two thirds of Americans, age 20 and older, have enough extra pounds to face health risks (2005). Many Americans face bias and discrimination at their place of employment. Some have been told by their boss, "You're too fat" and been fired, even with good performance evaluations. Many overweight and obese individuals fear they may lose their jobs or make less than their coworkers. Some cannot get jobs, due to inequitable hiring practices. Employers can be prejudiced. They offer overweight employees lower salaries. Question If more than one-third of American adults are obese, this group of Americans Body Mass Index (BMI) above 30, per Center for Disease Control (CDC), how do we prevent discrimination against them in the work place? How do we help this group of Americans obtain gainful and fulfilling employment, as well as empower them to improve their health status? Our First Lady Michelle Obama has made obesity our countries’ number one enemy. The First Lady created “Let’s Move” as her platform for combating obesity in our country. Answer The workplace is evolving in understanding...
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...Discrimination One of the challenges and issues in our work place is discrimination and it is impossible to prevent or correct discrimination without information about it. Therefore, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission “EEOC “created a Manual that clearly addresses the importance of policy and procedures in case of discrimination. Based on the Commission's guide, employers are required to prevent and correct discrimination through legislation and efficient enforcement mechanisms in the work place. Discrimination has many faces but, one of the forms of discrimination which we need to have a firm understanding is refusal of standard rights to persons because of race, nationality, age and sex. Race It is against the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that an employer reject to accept an application or refuse hire, promotion, compensation, job training or any other employment privileges because of an employee’s race or color. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) reports that it received 100,000 job bias charges during fiscal year 2012. Also, the EEOC has observed The number of people who filed race discrimination claims (33,512) increased in 2012 (Dipboye & Collela,2005).The EEOC indicated that in 2012, discrimination for certain racial minorities showed a deep impact in the current down turn of world of work. For example, in the United States, the unemployment rate remains almost twice as high for African-Americans relative...
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...Obesity in the Workplace Suzette B. Johnson Southern New Hampshire University Discrimination Against the Obese in the Workplace In the United States, there has been a substantial increase in obesity. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in every American adult is now considered obese. Obese is defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or higher. Obesity can contribute to diabetes, heart disease, stroke or certain kinds of cancer. What effect does obesity have in the workplace and how can we fight it? What is the Correlation between Obesity and Health Care Costs The CDC and the National Institute of Health (NIH) indicate that obesity contributes to heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and some types of cancer, all of which are leading causes of preventable death. In 2008, medical costs associated with obesity were over $147 million. 6 to 10% of U.S. health care spending is contributed to obesity. The health costs are 30% higher than normal weight persons. Is Obesity a Protected Class When the Americans with Disabilities Act was first passed, the EEOC viewed severe or morbid obesity as impairment under the Act, but not general obesity itself. But, this has changed under the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act. In 2013, the American Medical Association classified obesity as a medical disease. While this classification does not affect the ADA, it could be perceived that obesity is a protected class. How should obesity...
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...Video 1: Types of Discriminations In this video have show 6 types of discriminations such as direct discrimination, indirect discrimination, association discrimination, harassment discrimination, victimization discrimination and perceptive discrimination. Based on the types of discrimination, director has do an example and show to the people to understand it. First of all is direct discrimination. Direct discrimination is usually clear and easy to spot. This situation will occurs when a company or organization make decisions not based on value or talents but on factors such as sex, race, religion or age. This is an obvious injustice, but companies often do not have much ability to refute their wrongdoing. In the video, we can see they have show 2 example to let people to know about direct discrimination. In the first example is an employee, he need to stay over working time to finish his work however the others employees who have a good relationship with boss, they do not need to stay over working time to finish their work. Next example is when a company have doing recruitment for recruit new employees, the top decision maker will do not give the judgment correctly because the top decision maker will have a mentalist that give priority to his friends, family or others people who have relationship with him. Second discrimination is indirect discrimination. Indirect discrimination is when a work requirement, condition or practice seems the same for all staff, but actually disadvantages...
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...issue in the global market today is workplace diversity. Workplace diversity is defined as all characteristics and experiences that defined each employee as individuals, but it can also be misunderstood as discrimination against employees. Diversity can include race, ethnicity, sex, religion, disability and sexual orientation discrimination. One reason why workplace diversity is important is because when you respect your employees productivity rate rises and many companies do not know that. A diverse workplace targets to create an inclusive culture that values and uses the talents of all employees. Evolution of Workplace...
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...Most of the companies try their best to avoid discrimination in workplace, because it increase resentment between employees, decrease their morale and good performance, and discrimination occur when the manager takes his decision based on race, gender, religion and age. Most countries have a law that prevents discrimination but unfortunately some companies they just don’t implement it. One face of discrimination is favoritism and according to Business Dictionary website it is defined as “The preferential treatment of a person or group of people over other people or groups in the same unit, such as a classroom, social group or workplace.” As an example of favoritism in the workplace a story of Sara who is 23 years old, and was born in New Delhi and had spent most of her life in Alberta, Canada due to her father work. After she graduated with a bachelor degree in business administration, she started searching for a job and she found one in marketing agency, Sara was so excited and she like the place and her workmate. After one year of working in the agency her manager decided that she deserves a promotion due to her hard work and her unique skills, so he made her unit manager. In the beginning it was hard for Sara to manage all this work and the new tasks, but eventually she overcame these problems....
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...Employee Privacy Rights in the Workplace Vicki Puckett COM 120 Allyson Wells October 8, 2006 Do you think that your employee rights entitle you to workplace privacy? Well, think again. The fact is that most employers monitor their employee in one way or another. In the workplace, many employers are violating the privacy rights of their employees by surveillance, genetic testing, and sexual orientation. According to some workplace privacy studies, there is a good chance that your employer is monitoring your internet activities, including the Web pages you read, and messages you read and post in forums, blogs, and chat rooms. Your employer could also be spying on you in several other ways as well. Some may include recording your phone conversations, videotaping your every move within the company, and tracking your location with the company cell phone. Such monitoring is almost entirely unregulated. Therefore, unless company policy specifically states otherwise, your employer may listen, watch and record most of your workplace communications. The rapid growth of workplace monitoring and surveillance technology has far out paced the development of laws that protect worker privacy interests. Modern technology has provided employers with more advanced and effective means of monitoring their employees. As a result, electronic monitoring of employees in the workplace has become far more prevalent in recent years...
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...safe work environment. Human Resources must ensure that the workplace is free of harassment and bullying. Employees should feel comfortable and safe in their place of employment. Creating a productive working environment is beneficial to both the employee and the organization. Failing to take action in regards to workplace harassment and bullying leaves the organization liable for legal repercussions. Workplace harassment and bullying can often deter workers from committing violent acts against other employees and coworkers. Initiatives like Work-life balance can help to prevent workplace violence and harassment. Human Resources must do all that it can to ensure employees’ safety and to make the worker feel valued and supported at work and that federal guidelines are being followed. The Mariam-Webster dictionary defines harassment as creating an unpleasant or hostile situation for especially uninvited and unwelcomed verbal or physical conduct. It is the responsibility of the organization to immediately act on all claims of harassment. HR must be able to identify harassment, discrimination, retaliation, and violations of both federal and the organization’s policy. Harassment at work does not have to only be of a sexual nature. Workplace bullies can be employees, such as a bad boss or coworker, and sometimes a non-employee such as a client. Bullying at work is an increasing problem. Like childhood bullying workplace bullying is the tendency of individuals or groups to use persistent...
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