LECTURE 3 (CHAPTER 3)
EQUAL OPPORTUNITY & LEGAL ENVIRONMENT
Lecture Objective: To understand the laws affecting human resource practices in USA
organizations.
I. Understanding Why the Legal Environment Is Important
A. Doing the Right Thing
Benefits of operating within the law include: maintaining employee morale and
performance, attracting better hires, and creating positive image in eyes of its
customers.
B. Realizing the Limitations of the HR & Legal Departments
1. Responsibilities of HR include: record-keeping, writing legal policies
and procedures, & monitoring organization’s HR decisions.
2. Responsibility of Legal is to limit damage to firm after charges are
filed.
3. Responsibility of line managers is to act in lawful ways with every
employee and applicant contact.
II. Challenges to Legal Compliance
A. Dynamic Legal Environment
Laws are constantly changing because of Congressional Acts and court
decisions. What is legal one day may not be the next.
B. The Complexity of Laws
Despite this, managers need to be able to understand the basic intent of all HR
laws and learn how to deal legally with most situations.
C. Conflicting Strategies for Fair Employment
1. Fair employment means employment decisions are not affected by
illegal discrimination.
2. Affirmative action is a strategy intended to achieve fair employment by
urging employers to hire certain groups of people who were discriminated
against in the past.
3. Conclusions about affirmative action based on court decisions are:
a. Affirmative action has been upheld. Employers can base HR
decisions on basis of race, sex, national origin, age, and color.
b. Employment decisions cannot be made solely on the basis of
race, sex, age, national origin etc. All selected should be
essentially equally qualified.
c. In cases of layoff, rules applying must be blind.
d. Courts may order affirmative action with specific quotas when
an organization has a history of blatant discrimination.
D. Unintended Consequences
For example, ADA has become a national worker’s compensation law as current
employees have filed most of the complaints under this law and opportunities for
the disabled have not improved.
III. Equal Employment Opportunity Laws
A. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 states that men and women in the same job in the
same organization must make the same pay. It does not mean that merit pay
or seniority pay is not allowed.
B. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 provides that employment decisions
cannot be based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
1. General Provisions:
a. Prohibits discrimination in compensation, terms, conditions, or
privileges of employment.
b. Covers protected classes: African Americans, Asian Americans,
Latinos, Native Americans, and women.
2. Discrimination is making distinctions among people.
a. Disparate treatment occurs when an employer treats an
individual differently because of his/her protected status.
b. Adverse impact occurs when the same standard is
applied to all applicants or employees but that standard affects a
protected class more adversely than the non-protected class. (See
Figure 3.3 for differences between disparate treatment and
disparate impact.)
3. Defense of Discrimination Charges
Prima facie means on its face. For a disparate treatment case, complainant
needs to show that the organization did not hire him/her, that he/she
appeared to be qualified, and the organization continued to try to fill the
position after rejecting her/him.
In an disparate impact case, complainant needs to show that a restricted
policy is in effect, in that a disproportionate number of protected-class
individuals were affected by the use of the policy.
a. Four-fifths rule: comparing the selection rates of protected
classes to white males. When the rate of a protected class is less
than 4/5ths of rate of white males, disparate impact has occurred.
b. Job relatedness means the employer claims the decision was
made for job-related reasons.
c. BFOQ refers to a characteristic that must be present in all
employees for a particular job. (Actor role in a movie)
d. Seniority rules can influence decisions as long as they have been
consistently applied.
e. Business necessity means that a policy can be justified if it can
be shown it is necessary for the safe and efficient operation of the
organization. (Say drug tests discriminate against Texas female
truck drivers but protects public against their driving habits.)
4. Title VII & Pregnancy
1978 amendment to Title VII protected pregnant women against
discrimination. They must be treated just like organization treats
other employees with any medical condition.
5. Sexual Harassment
a. Quid pro quo: sexual harassment that occurs when sexual
activity is required in return for any job-related benefit.
b. Hostile work environment: sexual harassment that occurs when
the behavior of anyone in the work environment is sexual in nature
and perceived by an employee as offensive and undesirable.
c. Two employer defensive steps: a) prove that it exercised
reasonable care to prevent and correct sexual harassment problems
in a timely manner. b) prove that the complainant failed to use the
internal procedures for reporting sexual harassment and that those
procedures are fair.
C. The Civil Rights Act of 1991
Three important effects are: a) reestablished the Griggs vs Duke Power standard
for complainant’s burden of proof, b) forbids quotas but not preferences,
c) awards complainants punitive and compensatory damages.
D. Executive Order 11246
This presidential order exercised by Johnson required the federal government’s
departments and agencies to have affirmative action plans. It also meant that any
private firm having a contract with the federal government had to file AA plans as
well. An affirmative action plan promotes the employment of protected-class
citizens.
E. Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967
Prohibits discrimination against people who are 40 or older. Jokes as well as HR
decisions. Amended in 1990 by Older Workers Protection Act mandates benefit
uniformity.
E. Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
Forbids employment discrimination against people with disabilities who are able
to perform the essential functions of the job with or without reasonable
accommodation. Individuals with disabilities are people who have a physical or
mental impairment that substantially affects one or more major life activities such
as walking, reading, speaking, lifting etc.
1. Essential functions of a job what must be done in order to do the job
effectively which cannot be gotten around.
2. Reasonable accommodation refers to an action taken to allow a person with
a disability to perform a job such as wheelchair accessibility, reassigning
marginal duties, modifying training materials etc.
IV. EEO Enforcement & Compliance
A. EEOC, the agency most involved in enforcement of our employment
discrimination laws.
Three major functions
1. Processing discrimination complaints: it investigates complaints, attempts
to resolve the complaint through conciliation, and then may litigate the
complaint.
2. Issuing written regulations that interpret the laws and make them more
concrete.
3. Gathering and disseminating information: employers are required to file
an annual EEO-1 and post EEO posters in the workplace.
B. OFCCP
Differs from EEOC in that it monitors and enforces laws and executive orders
only for federal government and private sector organizations that have
government contracts. It actively monitors compliance with laws as affirmative
action plans are required to be filed by federal government agencies and all firms
contracting with any agency. It can punish these contracting firms by canceling
contracts or levying fines.
C. Affirmative Action Plans
Three steps include: conducting a utilization analysis, establishing goals and
timetables, and determining action options.
1. Utilization analysis describes the organization’s current workforce relative
to the pool of qualified workers in the labor force.
a. Part one: determine the demographic composition of the current
workforce by dividing all the organization’s jobs into classifications
and calculating the percentage of each protected class in each
classification.
b. Part two: determine the percentage of those protected classes in the
available labor market and compare current workforce demographics
to available labor market demographics.
2. Goals & timetables are for correcting any underutilization of protected
classes.
3. Action plans refer to taking steps to increase employment of protected class
persons where underutilization exists. The heart of affirmative action plans is
increasing employment rates of protected class persons.
Four guidelines:
a. recruit protected class persons
b. redesign jobs so protected class members can more easily qualify
c. provide specialized training for protected class members.
d. remove any unnecessary barriers to employment like van service
from a point easily accessible by public transport.
4. Reverse discrimination refers to discrimination against white males who are
referred to as non-protected class members.
V. Immigration Laws
A. Immigration & Control Act of 1986
Mandates that employers hire only people who can document that they are legally
permitted to work in the USA (I-9s)
B. Immigration Act of 1990
Designed to make it easier for skilled immigrants to enter USA.
C. Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988
It requires that government contractors try to make their workplaces free from
illegal drug use and has thus led to drug testing. Almost all major corporations do
drug testing of some kind.
D. Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994
This law protects employee seniority and benefits while and after they serve in
our armed forces. It also protects them from being discriminated against in
hiring, promotion and layoff decisions.
VI. Appendix: Pages 117. Review for first mid-term as well as final exam.