Discrimination at the Workplace

713 Words2 Pages

Everyone will have a least one job in their lifetime, and knowing how to recognize discrimination, so they are able to seek the proper help when needed to is very important. Discrimination in the work place can happen to anyone, and that is why people need to know the laws that protect employees against discrimination, ways employers can prevent discrimination, and the effects of discrimination in the workplace.
Three major laws that protect employees are Title VII of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and The Americans with Disability Act. Title VII makes it unlawful to refuse to hire or terminate anyone based on race, gender, national origin, color, or religion. This law applies to any business that has 15 or more employees, government, labor, and employment agencies (Bennett-Alexander & Hartman, 2012). Title VII also does include harassment, compensation, and advancement issues based on these categories as well. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act prohibits discrimination for anyone from being employed or terminated over the age of forty. This law does not protect those under the age of forty and they may be discriminated against because of their age. This law also requires specific record keeping which employers must maintain for three years. The required information is name, address, and date of birth, occupation, pay rate, and compensation earned each week. In addition to that information this information is required to be maintained for one year: job applications, records of promotions: demotions, transfers, layoffs, terminations, tests and test papers, as well as job ads. Some states go beyond the ADEA and provided greater protection to those older workers. The Americans with Disa...

... middle of paper ...

...though discrimination policies have come a long way, but it still happens today. A lot of employers have strict no tolerance policies to prevent those types of law suits. Also if discrimination does occur, the employee has one hundred and eighty days to file a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. If the employee does file a complaint through their employer first this does not affect the EEOC timing requirement (Bennett-Alexander & Hartman, 2012).

Works Cited

Bennett-Alexander, D.; Hartman, L (2012) Employment Law for Business 7th Edition. New York, NY. McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.
Pi-Yu, T.; Kleiner, B. (2001) Reasonable care of small business to prevent employment discrimination: Equal Opportunities International 20.5-7. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.prx-keiser.lirn.net/docview/199531356/141C90F559D461C1D51/1?accountid=35796

Open Document