Employment and Labor Laws
In every state, employment and labor laws are very vital especially with the high rate of cases of gender and racial discrimination at workplace. Labour laws have multiple functions where the primary function is to promote equal rights to all employees through the providence of equal opportunity, equal pay and maintaining a healthy physical and mental environment for workers according to (Fine and Bartley, 2019). The paper is a discussion of legal issues on employment and labor laws.
Equal employment opportunity (EEO) laws and legal issues concentrate on every law from state laws to federal laws (Fine and Bartley, 2019). EEOC laws take care of employment in public and private organizations which entail laws such as equal employment opportunity, employment discrimination based on hiring and promotion, training and so on. Employment and labor laws are outlined in the constitution, for instance, the American disability act of 1990, civil rights act of 1964, discrimination in employment act of 1967 as well as the equal pay act of 1963.
The department of labor administers is the primary source of employment and labor laws including the occupation safety and health act (OSHA). The office of federal contract compliance programs and equal employment opportunity are vital in the United States department of labor. Both OFFCCP and EEOC have various roles, for instance, the EEOC establishes laws that prohibit discrimination of employees during employment concerning the civil rights act of 1964 which protects individuals against discrimination based on race and gender.
The OFFCP, on the other hand, is concerned with controlling and regulating non-discrimination in businesses for instance business contractors and sub-contractors. Both offices handle victims of employment discrimination as well as take actions against violators of laws (Ajunwa, 2019). The EEOC covers everything revolving around discrimination complaints while the OFFCCP has authority over businesses and contracts working with the federal government especially on pay equity, equal opportunity, and rights rendered to individuals with disabilities.
Disparate Impact is the implications of an organization’s policies and actions towards people who are secured by class. The policies and actions of the organization discriminate against people which affects a group of people negatively for example during a written application, a group of a certain may be excluded from tackling certain questions in the application sheet (Ajunwa, 2019). Disparate treatment involves the act of treating people differently or in a negative manner for instance, excluding female employees during a certain work project. The difference between disparate treatment and disparate impact is that disparate impact is not intentional as compared to disparate treatment.
Bonafide occupation qualification (BFOQ) allows employees to discriminate under reasonable circumstances which are job-related reasons. Potential employees may be discriminated based on religion nationality or sex for safety purposes for example in airline job application and retirement (Ajunwa, 2019). Airline employ pilots from different religion because of flights to different countries.
The four-fifth rule of disparate impact considers a certain rate of selection based on race, ethnicity, and sex where if the rate of a certain race is less than four-fifth the federal government considers that as an adverse impact while if the rate is more than four-fifth the situation is not considered as adverse impact. For example, statistics are taken for certain recruitment where a female applicant is taken under a selection procedure to determine the selection rate.
The American disability act of 1990 ( ADA) prevents employers from different sectors such as private organizations, employment agencies state and local government from discriminating individuals with a disability during job training, application and compensation. ADA applies to employment companies with more than fifteen employees where persons with disabilities are considered to have both mental and physical impairment under the civil rights act. ADA does not cover for personal items for instance glasses for the visually impaired, does not lower its standards to accommodate a disabled individual as well as does not cover for individuals under drugs and alcohol abuse. ADA only covers for sober employees, provides medical examination covers and confidentiality.
A reasonable accommodation is considered after the application process for workers with a disability to fit and work comfortably as well as enjoy equal employment rights. A reasonable accommodation is considered if working standards are not compromised for instance as a threat to productivity. Quid pro quo means something for something which is a type of harassment that involves giving out something at the workplace for favors for instance hiring and job promotion.
Quid pro quo is based on sexual demand and favors resulting to sexual harassment. In case of a quid pro quo harassment, employees have the right to sue the employer under the equal employment opportunity commission. A hostile work environment is any workplace unpleasant and unwelcome behavior that makes employees uncomfortable in their work. A hostile working environment prohibits an employee from enjoying their rights both of speech and freedom, for instance, offensive communication from a colleague or the employer. Most of the time employees feel minor, underpaid or overworked which leads to work burnouts and job dismissal.
References
Ajunwa, I. (2019). Automated Employment Discrimination. Available at SSRN 3437631.
Fine, J., & Bartley, T. (2019). Raising the floor: New directions in public and private enforcement of labor standards in the United States. Journal of Industrial Relations, 61(2), 252-276.
