HR and Legislation
Human Resource Management
Legislation Affecting HR
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CRA 1964: Title VII
Other CRAs
ADEA
Older Worker Protection
Act
FMLA
EPA
Executive Orders
Rehabilitation Act of 1973
ADA
Vietnam Era Veterans
Readjustment Act
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Pregnancy Discrimination
Act
FLSA
ERISA
COBRA
HIPAA
OSHA
WARN
IRCA
State and local statutes
Civil Rights Act of 1964:
What Is Discrimination?
Disparate treatment
 “Discrimination is using race, color,
religion, sex or national origin as a basis for
treating people unequally”
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Civil Rights Act of 1964:
What Is Discrimination?
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Illegal Disparate impact
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“Discrimination is any practice without business
justification that has unequal consequences for
people of different race, sex, religion, color or
national origin without actually using any of those
classifications as a basis for treating people
unequally.”
Civil Rights Act of 1964:
Griggs v. Duke Power
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Duke Power used two neutral, “color-blind”
criteria
 High school diploma
 Score on standardized ability test
Resulted in unequal consequences for black and
white workers
But employees who did not pass the test or had a
high school degree still performed adequately
Civil Rights Act of 1964:
Griggs v. Duke Power
Title VII prohibits practices that create
unequal (disparate) impact
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 When
business necessity or job relatedness
provides justification for using them
Civil Rights Act of 1964:
EEOC Uniform Guidelines
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A “test” is anything that has an impact on the
terms and conditions of employment
How do you show job relatedness?
 “Test” must be valid
 Valid representation of job content
 Valid predictor of job performance
“Tests” that are legally sound will make superior
employment decisions
Civil Rights Act of 1964:
Sex Discrimination
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“Bona fide occupational qualification”
Diaz v. Pan American Airways
Male sued the airline for being denied
employment as a flight attendance because of his
gender
Court found that BFOQ is justified only if
 The essence of business requires the exclusion
 All or substantially all members of one sex are
unable to perform the job
Civil Rights Act of 1964:
Sexual Harassment
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Barnes v. Costle
 “But
for her womanhood,” it wouldn’t have
happened
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Meritor v. Vinson
 Identified
two forms of sexual harassment
 Quid-pro-quo
 Hostile Environment
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“Unwelcome” is a key word in hostile
environment cases
Civil Rights Act of 1964:
Sexual Harassment
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Management actions
 Written
policy
 Sexual harassment is not
tolerated
 Grievance without going
through supervisor
 Training for managers to
identify and take actions
Affirmative Action
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Three reasons employers have
affirmative action plans
 Government
contractor of $10,000 or more
in facilities of 50 or more employees
 Court ordered due to past discrimination
 Voluntary
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If AAP is due to government contract,
OFCCP enforces
What is Affirmative Action?
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Workforce analysis:
 Determine
current workforce
demographics
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Availability analysis:
 Determine the
number of potential
workers by
demographic
classification
available in the
workforce
 Based on eight factors
Affirmative Action: Eight Factors
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Percent of population in
recruiting area
Percent of unemployment
in recruiting area
Percent of labor force in
recruiting area
Percent of available
workers with required
skills in specified area
Percent of available
workers with required
skills in recruiting area
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Percent of workers
promotable or
transferable within the
organization
Estimate of existence of
training institutions for
required skills
Estimate of training
efforts organization is
reasonably able to
undertake
What is Affirmative Action?
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Reconcile these by setting goals and
timetables
 Flexible
objectives that can be met in a
realistic amount of time
 More like a budget than a mandate
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Plan action steps, implement and monitor
progress
Affirmative Action:
Preferential Treatment
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McDonald v. Santa Fe Trail Corp.: Obligation not
to discriminate against whites
Weber v. Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp.:
Upheld because collaboration between union and
employer
Consensus of courts is that preferential treatment
in involuntary plans (based on past discrimination)
can be allowable
Affirmative Action:
Preferential Treatment
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Preferential treatment can be allowable if
 It
is involuntarily adopted (due to past
discrimination)
 It is remedial
 Does not exclude all non-minorities
 It is temporary
 It is formalized
Americans with Disabilities Act
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Prohibits discrimination against “qualified
individuals with disabilities”
 Has
the skill, experience, education and other
job-related requirements
 Can, with or without reasonable
accommodation, perform the essential
functions of the job
Americans with Disabilities Act
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Individuals with a disability include those
who
 Have
a physical or mental impairment that
substantially limits one or more major life
activities
 Have a record of such an impairment
 Are regarded as having such an impairment
Americans with Disabilities Act
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An employer must make reasonable
accommodation unless it can be shown that
accommodation would cause an undue
hardship on the operations of the business
Age Discrimination in
Employment Act
Protects all workers 40 or over
 Enforced by the EEOC
 Outlaws discrimination or mandatory
retirement against those 40 or over
 Allows jury trials
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