American with Disability Act and Age Discrimination
Answer the following questions
3-4 paragrahs per question cite any sources
Q 1Read either Chapter 8 (Murgia) or Chapter 10 (Sutton) from Employment Discrimination Stories, matching the case you briefed for your Written Assignment. What did you learn from this text reading that shed new light on the original decision?
Q2 Should the law be broadened to protect younger workers from discrimination, not just those over age 40?
Q3 Does the ADA impose a reasonable or unreasonable burden on small employers, in your view?
American with Disability Act and Age Discrimination
Employment discrimination occurs when job applicants or employees are treated unfairly. One can be discriminated against due to mental or physical disabilities, genetic information, pregnancy or parenthood, and also their relationship with someone else who is discriminated against. This can also occur due to various factors such as age, gender, race, ethnicity, skin color, and nationality. Appellee Robert Murgia was an officer in the Uniformed Branch of Massachusetts state police. Even though he was physically and mentally fit the Massachusetts Board of retirement retired him on his fiftieth birthday. This is because of the mandatory requirement that uniformed police officers should retire at the age of fifty. He brought the case on the civil court of the United States claiming that he was denied him equal protection of the law.
The main issue was whether the mandatory retirement law violated the equal protection law. The function of this police unit was to protect people and property and also to maintain order. Control prison and civil disorders, respond to emergencies, natural disasters, and investigate criminals and also apprehending them. According to the court, this law did not violet the law of equal rights. Rationality was the decisive factor rather than strict scrutiny this is because scrutiny only applies when the act is against a fundamental right or works against a given group, this wasn’t the case. Also, it serves to remove the officers whose physical ability has diminished with age. I learned that the decision was justified since it helped accomplish the mission of protecting the public. This was accomplished by ensuring the physical preparedness of the uniform police thus even though the law may not have been the best way to accomplish this it dint violet the law of equal protection.
Age discrimination is rampant and seen in many workplaces to curb this the government made laws that protect against age discrimination. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act was enforced in 1967 it only protects the people over the age of forty years. According to these laws, employers cannot fire a person because they are older, they can also not deny them benefits or give them less pay because of their age. According to this law, employers can favor older workers more than the younger ones. This law also makes it legal for companies to advertise for older workers as compared to the younger ones. Even though this law may not have a great impact on small businesses it’s effective to those that have more than twenty employees. Due to such laws that don’t protect the younger people they face a lot of discrimination in the workplace. According to statistics younger people have a high rate of unemployment of up to 13.2%
Policies such as “Last in, First Out” even though they help protect discrimination they do not favor young people. This is because even though a young person may be valuable in a firm than an older senior, the younger are more likely to be fired if this policy is in place. This is because they have not been in the company for long compared to the older person. Companies also tend to consider older people because of the responsibility assumption. Thus in a company, the younger person is most likely to be laid off than the older person because they do not have families to support. Thus the discrimination laws should be broadened to protect the younger people too. This will help create more opportunities as well as increasing competitive business ideas.
American with Disability Act was passed in 1990 its aim is to prevent discrimination on people with disabilities. This law guarantees people with disabilities equal opportunities in public accommodations, employment, state and local government services, and telecommunications. For one to be qualified as disabled under this act they should be mentally or physically impaired which limits them one or more life activities. In my view, ADA imposes a reasonable burden to small employers this is because their main aim is only to ensure the disabled person is not discriminated against. It requires employers to provide reasonable accommodation to these employees this can be in terms of. Making the needed facilities physically accessible, re-structuring the job or modifying the work schedules, modification of equipment or devices. Modification of examinations, training facilities or policies. Providing readers, interpreters or similar accommodation when needed.
These impositions are not burdensome because the accommodations should not impose an administrative or financial burden on a firm. ADA looks at the financial budget of an entire entity not only the accommodation requested. They also allow the employer to set the qualification standards as long as the job- selection and the employment test do not screen out the disabled intentionally. It also requires the employer to offer the same terms, conditions, and privileges to all employees. It also limits employers from imposing pre-medical tests on the employees before the job is posted. Also, the medical tests should be done by all employees under the category advertised. Considering these facts ADA does not impose unreasonable burdens on these employers but only aims at promoting equality in the workplace.
