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HRM Chapter 3

The document discusses equal opportunity and the legal environment surrounding employment law. It provides an overview of key concepts like affirmative action, disparate treatment, protected classes, sexual harassment, and defenses against discrimination claims. The document also summarizes provisions of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, including what behaviors it prohibits and the role of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

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mohammad younas
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43 views14 pages

HRM Chapter 3

The document discusses equal opportunity and the legal environment surrounding employment law. It provides an overview of key concepts like affirmative action, disparate treatment, protected classes, sexual harassment, and defenses against discrimination claims. The document also summarizes provisions of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, including what behaviors it prohibits and the role of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Uploaded by

mohammad younas
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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3-1

CHAPTER THREE

Understanding Equal Opportunity

&

The Legal Environment


3-2

Why Understanding the Legal Environment


Is Important
 Assists in realizing what is the right thing to do…
 Helps employees understand the limitations of the HR
and Legal departments
 Facilitate a fair and humane environment

 Can limit potential liability


 Who to hire
 How to compensate employees

 What benefits to offer

 How to accommodate employees with dependents

 How and when to fire employees


3-3

Conflicting Strategies for Fair Employment


3-4

Strategy for Fair Employment

Affirmative Action: A phrase describing a range of


policies to seek out, encourage and sometimes give preferential
treatment to individuals in protected groups
 Allowed when breaks down historic patterns of
discrimination
 All employees should be “essentially equally qualified”
 No absolute barriers to white employees
 No discharge of white workers
 Flexible and temporary
 May be court ordered
3-5

Affirmative action
What do these reasons imply about affirmative action programs?

Affirmative action means that an organization must take certain steps to show
that it is not discriminating.
For example, the organization must analyze the demographics of its
current workforce. Similarly, the organization must analyze the
composition of the community from which it recruits. If the workforce
resembles the community for all job classifications, then the organization
may be demonstrating that its affirmative action program is working. If,
however, there are differences, affirmative action also implies that the
organization will establish goals and timetables for correcting the
imbalance and have specific plans for recruiting and retaining protected
group members. If it does not, it can lose the right to contract with the
government for goods and services.
3-6

Key Terms
 Protected Class
 A group of people who have suffered discrimination in the past
and who are give special protection by the judicial system
 African Americans
 Asian Americans
 Latinos
 Native Americans
 Women
 Disparate treatment
 Intentional discrimination on the part of the employer
 Disparate impact
 A practice or policy that has a greater adverse impact on the
members of a protected group than on other employees,
regardless of intent.
3-7

Disparate Treatment
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
 Disparate Treatment:
 Intentional discrimination on the part of the employer
 Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
 It is unlawful to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge an individual or
otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his/her
compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment because of
such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
 It is unlawful to limit, segregate, or classify his/her employees or applicants
for employment in any way that would deprive or tend to deprive any
individual of employment opportunities or otherwise adversely affect
his/her status as an employee because of such individual’s race, color,
religion, sex, or national origin.
3-8

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964


 An employer cannot discriminate on the basis of
race, color, religion, sex, or national origin with
respect to employment.
 Coverage
 All public or private employers of 15 or more persons.
 All private and public educational institutions, the federal
government, and state and local governments
 All public and private employment agencies
 All labor unions with 15 or more members

 Created
the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (EEOC)
3-9

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964


 The
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
(EEOC)
 Consists of five members appointed by the president
with the advice and consent of the Senate.
 Each member serves a five-year term.

 The EEOC has a staff of thousands to assist it in


administering the Civil Rights law in employment
settings.
 EEOC may file discrimination charges and go to court
on behalf of aggrieved individuals.
3-10

Defense of Discrimination Charges


 Job Relatedness:
 Business can show that the decision was made for job- related reasons.
 BFOQ:
 Bona Fide Occupational Qualification. Requirement that an employee
be of a certain religion, sex, or national origin where that is reasonably
necessary to the organization’s normal operation. Specified by the
1964 Civil Rights Act.
 Seniority:
 Formal seniority systems are permitted - must be well established and
applied universally
 Business necessity:
 Defense created by the courts, which requires an employer to show an
overriding business purpose for the discriminatory practice and that the
practice is therefore acceptable. (drug testing)
3-11

Title VII: Sexual Harassment


 Sexual harassment
 Harassment on the basis of sex that has the purpose or
effect of substantially interfering with a person’s work
performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or
offensive work environment.
 Employers have an affirmative duty to maintain workplaces
free of sexual harassment and intimidation.
3-12

Sexual Harassment Defined


 Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors,
and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature
that takes place under any of the following conditions:
 Submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or
implicitly a term or condition of an individual’s employment.
 Submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is
used as the basis for employment decisions affecting such
individual.
 Such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably
interfering with an individual’s work performance or creating
an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment.
3-13

Discriminatory Employment Practices


 Recruitment  Selection
 Word of Mouth  Educational Requirements
 Misleading Information  Preference to Relatives
 Help Wanted Ads  Height, Weight, and
Physical Characteristics
 Personal Appearance
 Arrest Records
 Dress
 Application Forms
 Hair
 Discharge Due to
 Uniforms Garnishment
3-14

Questions to Ask When an Employer Receives Notice


That EEOC has Filed a Bias Claim
1. Exactly what is the charge and is your company covered by the
relevant statutes?
2. What protected group does the employee belong to? Is the
EEOC claiming disparate impact or disparate treatment?
3. Are there any obvious bases upon which you can challenge
and/or rebut the claim?
4. If it is a sexual harassment claim, are there offensive comments,
calendars, posters, screensavers, and so on, on display in the
company?
5. Who are the supervisors who actually took the allegedly
discriminatory actions and how effective will they be as
potential witnesses?

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