...Human Resources Task 1: Memorandum to Chief Executive Officer WGU Toy Company Western Governors University In partial fulfillment of the requirements of Human Resources JDT2 Memorandum to Chief Executive Officer WGU Toy Company TO: WGU Toy Company, Chief Executive Officer FROM: Elementary Division Manager DATE: June 18, 2013 SUBJECT: Constructive Discharge Claim As a result of a work schedule policy change at WGU Toy Company, a constructive discharge was filed under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 related to religious discrimination by a former employee. This is due to a policy change that required toy company employees to work rotating shifts to accommodate the demands of production. In this former employee’s claim, rotation would fall on a religious holy day. The rotating schedule change is required for all production employees but would not affect office staff members who will maintain 0800 to 1700 Monday through Friday work schedules. This memorandum will provide information to assist WGU Toy Company with recommendations in handling this claim. The nature of discrimination charges were best explained through review of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which identifies definitions specific to this claim against WGU Toy Company. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act states, “it is illegal to discriminate against someone based on race, color, religion, national origin, or sex” (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity...
Words: 1726 - Pages: 7
...working conditions so intolerable that any reasonable person would have resigned (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission [EEOC], Prohibited Employment Policies/Practices). Title VII prohibits discrimination for race, color, religion, sex, or national origin for companies with 15 or more employees working on a given day (EEOC, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964). Since our company has more than 15 employees, we are legally required to abide by Title VII. Additionally, under Title VII, an employer is required by law to provide an employee religious accommodations once the employee request it, assuming it does not place an unreasonable hardship on the employer (EEOC, Religious Discrimination). The facts discovered to date are: 1. The former employee was a long term, valued, well liked, employee with a stellar performance reviews and employment record. 2. The resignation occurred after the new 7-day work schedule policy went into effect. 3. We can find no record of written or verbal communications between the former employee and any level of management and/or HR where the former employee: a. Made management and/or HR aware that he considers the new policy to be religiously discriminatory because it will require him to periodically work on Sundays, which he considers a holy day and actively observes. b. Requested management and/or HR to provide accommodations so that that his work schedule never include Sundays. RECOMMENDATIONS: A. Former employee’s claim...
Words: 694 - Pages: 3
...Memorandum To: CEO From: Manager Date: March 9, 2012 Subject: Constructive Discharge Claim As requested, I have done the initial research on how the company should respond to the plaintiff’s claim of constructive discharge. According to The University of Chicago Law Review (1986), constructive discharge occurs when the working conditions of an employee are so unbearable and discriminatory that any sensible person would quit. The plaintiff must be able to prove two things: (1) that the working conditions were intolerable, and (2) that the employer deliberately created those conditions with the intent to cause the plaintiff to quit (Finnegan and Sheila, 1986). Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employers from discriminating against “persons on the basis of their race, color, religion, sex, or national origin” (Gomez-Mejia, Balkin, Cardy, 2009, p.93). The plaintiff is claiming that there was no choice but to quit based on the fact that the plaintiff was required to work on a religious holy day as a result of the work schedule policy change. According to the plaintiff, the change in the work schedule policy is an infringement on their religious beliefs and is therefore claiming constructive discharge based on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The legal concept of constructive discharge is relevant in this scenario, in that the plaintiff quit because he/she alleged that the work schedule policy change requires employees to work on a...
Words: 1670 - Pages: 7
...Based on my research the employee’s doesn’t have a valid case under Constructive discharge. Constructive discharge is when an employee leaves her job because her employer made her working condition so terrible, that she was obligated to quit. Under EEOC Reasonable Accommodation & Religion “the law requires an employer to reasonable accommodator an employee’s religious beliefs or practices” retrieved from http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/practices/index/cfm / Our former employee claims that because of a change in the company’s work schedule, her shift falls on Sunday. This makes her unable to worship. Assuming this employee did not ask her supervisor to change her work schedule, or ask if she can switch with another employee. She does not have a valid case. Title VII of the Civil Right Act, 1964 is “prohibits employers with at least 15 employees or employment agencies and unions from discriminating employment based on race, color, sex, religion, age, or origin “ retrieved from http://www.eeoc.gov/policy/docs/qanda_religion/ It is illegal for an employer to treat any employee differently, harass, refuse a request to accommodate based on there religious values and practice. I don’t think this employee have any valid case because we changed the work schedule for our entire production employees. We did not treat this employee differently. She did not give us any written request to change her work schedule, so she can’t say we denied her request. Based on the situation the employee...
Words: 655 - Pages: 3
...To: Company CEO From: Date: Subject: How the company should respond to the employee’s claim of constructive discharge. Constructive discharge is a legal concept that is part of the Federal Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Law, which prohibits job discrimination. This part of the EEO addresses changes in the policies/procedure in employment that result in creating an environment with the intention of targeting a specific person or groups to force them to quit or leaving any reasonable person no other choice but to quit. To establish whether this has occurred the courts have established two different criteria to judges these actions by. The first is the reasonable person standard. This is where any reasonable person would find these changes so unbearable that there is no other option but to quit to find relief from this oppressive environment, for example requiring employees to work 16 hours per day without any brakes. The second is if the employer has created the policies and/or procedures with the specific intent of causing an employee, or segment of employees, to quit; such as requiring all persons to work on religious holidays without any exceptions even though there is no true operational need to do so. It is not necessary for the situation to meet both of these criteria it must only meet one to be considered constructive discharge. In this case the former employee is claiming that the change in schedule would intentionally...
Words: 1308 - Pages: 6
...It has come to my attention that a former employee has filed suit against All About Toys claiming constructive discharge and that All About Toys allegedly violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. To summarize the plaintiff’s concern, the production staff’s shift matrix was redesigned as a means of accommodating recent company growth. All staff members were included in this restructure that altered the days/shifts from the prior Monday through Friday model previously in use. The fundamental claim is that due to the inherent modification of the work schedule and the inclusion of an employee observed holy day, the employee could no longer meet the staffing expectation and deemed it necessary to resign based on perceived discrimination. This memo shall serve to illustrate the employee’s allegations as well as interpret our risk and recommended course of action. Constructive Discharge Definition: A discriminatory constructive discharge occurs when the employer discriminatorily creates working conditions that are so difficult, unpleasant, or intolerable that a reasonable person in the aggrieved person's position would feel compelled to resign. In other words, the aggrieved person is essentially forced to resign under circumstances where the resignation is tantamount to the employer's termination or discharge of the employee. (Appendix C EEO-MD-110. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.eeoc.gov/federal/directives/md110/appendixc.html) Constructive...
Words: 1439 - Pages: 6
...2009, stating that she was coerced into resignation shortly after MTC enforced the new production shift policy in January 2009, which included rotating weekend shifts (Saturday and Sunday). Sendak bases her claim upon the position [that] as a Seventh Day Adventist, Saturdays are considered “religious holy days” and the enforcement of such a policy by MTC subjected her to religious discrimination. Applicable Legal Principles to the Claim After consultation with MTC’s Human Resources and Legal Counsel, the following Equal Employment Opportunity Commission legal and regulatory requirements have been cited as applicable to the claim: 1. Under Title VII, it is unlawful for employers to discriminate against an applicant or employee (or former employee), based upon that person’s “race, color, religion, sex or national origin or protected activity”. 1 2. “Religious discrimination involves treating a person (applicant or employee) unfavorably because of his or her religious beliefs”2 or practices, where the person’s moral or ethical beliefs influences their ideals (principles of right and wrong), which may be upheld by traditional views.3 3. In order to remain in compliance with the laws enforced by the EEOC, it is the employer’s responsibility to “reasonably accommodate the religious practices of the employee...
Words: 886 - Pages: 4
...conflicted with his observance of holy day. Due to this the employee choose to resign. B. Title VII Title VII is also known as the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It was created to prevent forms of discrimination related to racial, ethnic, national and religious minorities and women. The official Title VII documents define: The term “religion” includes all aspects of religious observance and practice, as well as belief, unless an employer demonstrates that he is unable to reasonably accommodate to an employee’s or prospective employee’s religious observance or practice without undue hardship on the conduct of the employer’s business. Section 2000e-2 a1 states: It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer- 1. To fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges or employment, because of...
Words: 1426 - Pages: 6
...To: CEO Executive Team Subject: RJDT Task 2: Code of Ethics As the Elementary Division Manager it is my responsibility to establish and enforce a Code of Ethics regarding the distribution of whistles. The decision whether to distribute the whistles as scheduled or incur additional cost to reproduce/repackage the whistle involves exercising ethical decision making. According to the quality assurance manager, the whistles have traces of lead above the U.S. legal acceptable limits for children ages 7 and younger and the cost to reproduce/repackage is $100,000. It is my goal to resolve this dilemma in a manner supported by the Toy Company as well as protect the company while fulfilling our obligations. There are three possible decision alternatives to address the problem. Each having advantages and disadvantages along with financial, legal, and ethical considerations: 1. Distribute whistles as-is and on schedule a. The company’s advantage would be honoring the negotiated contract to produce the whistles. b. The disadvantage would be the potential harm to the client due to increased lead. c. The financial consideration would be the company saving $100,000 at the customer’s risk of harm. d. The legal consideration would be the risk for potential lawsuits. e. It would be unethical towards the customer and law to disregard the regulatory limit of traces of lead. 2. Reproduce and repackage the whistles a. The company’s advantage would be ensuring customer confidence in...
Words: 1063 - Pages: 5
...Rjdt Task 2a By saltzmachine | Studymode.com Human Resources RJDT Task 2a Mitchell Shaneman February 12, 2013 Memorandum To: CEO; Executive Team From: Eric Saltzman, Manager Elementary Division Date: February 11, 2013 Subject: Alternatives for the decision regarding the high lead found in the whistles. The situation of determining how to handle the recently discovered high lead content in the large whistles order is a difficult one that will in some way affect the company. Three alternatives have been made to allow options for this decision. Alternative 1: Say nothing; allow the whistles shipment to go without notifying the customer. Alternative 2: Replace the customer’s order by providing whistles that meet the appropriate company standards. Alternative 3: Contact the customer and explain the situation, offer them a discount for on the whistles that are lower than the company standard. Decision Process The process for choosing the three alternatives began by identifying the decision to be made. The decision at hand is what to do with the information discovered about the order of whistles going to a school in South America. This is a big decision that will affect the company in each alternative. The next step of the process is listing options possible for the situation, and then studying those options by listing advantages and disadvantages of each. Then the decision was made by choosing the best overall solution for...
Words: 1459 - Pages: 6
...To: CEO Executive Team Subject: RJDT Task 2: Code of Ethics As the Elementary Division Manager it is my responsibility to establish and enforce a Code of Ethics regarding the distribution of whistles. The decision whether to distribute the whistles as scheduled or incur additional cost to reproduce/repackage the whistle involves exercising ethical decision making. According to the quality assurance manager, the whistles have traces of lead above the U.S. legal acceptable limits for children ages 7 and younger and the cost to reproduce/repackage is $100,000. It is my goal to resolve this dilemma in a manner supported by the Toy Company as well as protect the company while fulfilling our obligations. There are three possible decision alternatives to address the problem. Each having advantages and disadvantages along with financial, legal, and ethical considerations: 1. Distribute whistles as-is and on schedule a. The company’s advantage would be honoring the negotiated contract to produce the whistles. b. The disadvantage would be the potential harm to the client due to increased lead. c. The financial consideration would be the company saving $100,000 at the customer’s risk of harm. d. The legal consideration would be the risk for potential lawsuits. e. It would be unethical towards the customer and law to disregard the regulatory limit of traces of lead. 2. Reproduce and repackage the whistles a. The company’s advantage would be ensuring customer confidence in our...
Words: 319 - Pages: 2
