The Civil Rights Act of 1964 - Research Paper Example

? The Civil Rights Act of 1964 [College] Civil rights Act passed in 1964 helped a lot in preventing discrimination to virtually all employees based on race, sex, color etc. The idea of having equal employment opportunities at the work place is to ensure is given the opportunity to gain and keep employment based on ability to work and perform (Schermerhorn, 2009). Employment laws have been amended and expanded to protect the workers in other new forms of discrimination and employment concerns that have risen over the past few decades. With this trend continuing, there are several federal laws that give protection to potential workers in United States in terms of illegal discrimination at the work place comprehensively. Discrimination based on Race, Color, religion, and nationality In the beginning of 1960s, most Americans knew the potential of having equal protection was to be fulfilled in the fourteenth amendment. There was a debate in the three arms of the government and the public on whether the constitution enhances equal protection to all American workers, but civil Acts has been able to protect American workers from being discriminated based on color, religion, race, and national origin. It is, therefore, unlawful to deny equal employment opportunity to an employee because of his race, or even perceived race, or race-linked characters such as hair color and facial features, or because the individual is married to or has an association with another person of a particular race and color. This law also extended non-discrimination protection to workers who are disabled. There have been attempts to enact the legislation to protect lesbians, bisexual and gay workers from discrimination but the Congress has failed to protect workers from discrimination based on sexual orientation. Title VII also provides protection of a person seeking employment to be denied employment centered on stereotypes of the person’s capabilities because of his/her color and race. Exceptions of age are enforced when employment opportunity puts age as a necessary consideration for performing a certain job (Adamson, 2008). Discrimination based on Gender Public law 78 Section 241 was passed in 1964, and it provided provisions forbidding discrimination based on gender as well as an individual’s race during the hiring, promoting and firing of an employee. Sex was added in the law to protect Alice Paul who was a woman. Section 703 part A declared it unlawful for an employee to refuse to hire or even discharge a worker with respect to the worker’s terms of service, compensation, or any privilege of employment because of the individual’s race, national origin, color or religion. Final bill that was passed allowed sex to be one of the considerations especially when the sex of the worker was a bona fide qualification for an intended job. EEOC was later created under Title VII for implementing this law. Recruiting, Hiring and Advancement Section 703 Part A protects workers during hiring process, and it states that it is unlawful to discriminate an employee with respect to compensation or any other privileges of employment. Any job requirement should be applied in a uniform and consistent manner to all persons regardless of the race and color. Moreover, a job requirement should without putting in place job performance or needs of the business; otherwise, it will be unlawful if the specific requirements will exclude persons of specific race and color in a significant way than others. For instance, an employer who solicits applications from applicants of the same race and color, or applicants with a specific education background which may not be important for the performance of the job, or even testing the job applicants for knowledge or abilities when the job performance is not important. In other circumstances, an employer may require racial information of an applicant for having affirmative action. To obtain information relating to race without discriminating the employee is by using separate forms or even keeping the information about the race of an applicant separate from the application form. The employer can use this technique to obtain information needed, but should not use the information in the decision to select the employee. It is important not to have pre-employment questions related to race unless it is information required for a legitimate purpose because it might suggest race being used as decision-making tool. In the instance race is used in selecting applicants of a specific job while others are excluded, it constitutes discrimination. Harassment/Hostile Work Environment Section 703 Part A (2) protects employees against segregation or classification in a manner that deprives them their status as employees. The law in this act prohibits offensive conducts at the work place such as ethnic slurs, jokes based on an employee’s race, giving derogative comments, and even any verbal or physical conduct that discriminates an individual based on his/her race and color. These conducts at the workplace are unwelcome due to their being considered pervasive and severe. The law has also ensured employers have taken appropriate steps in preventing and correcting unlawful harassments. Therefore, it is important for the employees to be responsible and report any harassment witnessed at an early stage in order to prevent it from escalating. There are union contracts that require organizations to set up procedures for addressing grievances and ensure employees are guaranteed due process at the work place (Sham, 2010). Retaliation Retaliation is one of the mistreatments employees faced in America, but luckily Section 706 (c) assigns EEOC to oversee enforcement proceedings in case of an illegal employment practice that occurs in a state (Kohn, 2011). It gives employees the right to be free and retaliate in case they are discriminated or prevented from participating in the proceedings of EEOC. A victim alleging discrimination at the work place is required to file a claim with EEOC before suing the employer (Cross, 2007). This can be done by filing a charge, carrying out testimonies, not excluding participation in agency proceedings. Compensation and Other Employment Terms, conditions and privileges Section 703 (h) prevents employers from applying a different standard of compensation, different terms, conditions and privileges in persuading an employee to a bona fide merit system, or any other system capable of measuring quantity earnings, production quality, etc. provided that the differences present are not for the purpose of discriminating other employees because of their race, gender and color. There are employment laws that protect employees in a directly by specifying minimum standard of salary to be paid, safety, among other employment aspects (Walsh, 2012). It is an unlawful practice for an employer to discriminate employees based on their sex, especially in determining the wages to be paid. Beginning 1960s federal civil right laws were created and it had remedies against employers who fire employees because of race, disability, religion, national origin, etc. (Halbert and Inguli, 2011). Therefore, race, color is not a basis for the difference in pay, performance evaluation trainings, assignment of work, and employee discipline among other activities at the work place. Segregation and Classification of Employees Title VII section 703 of the act state that it is an unlawful practice for an employer to limit or segregate and employee, or classify its membership in a way that would deprive the employee any employment opportunity or even affect its employment status being an employee or applicant applying for a job. An employee may belong to a specific protected group, and may be physically isolated form other workmates or even customers contacts. Moreover, an employer may not assign the employee based on their race and color. For instance, Title VII prevents assignment of tasks to African Americans to a predominantly Black establishment, or geographic locations. The law has protected job applicants from being excluded from particular positions based racial groups, including grouping of employees at the work place in such a way that they will be associated to a certain group. Other segregation practices prohibited by this law include coding of applications by employment agencies or an employer in order to designate on the race of an applicant that constitutes discrimination because it excludes people from certain races and color from getting employed. Currently EEOC has been able to enforce a wide range of federal statutes that prohibits employee discrimination which include Civil Rights Acts, discrimination against persons of 40 years of age and above, equal pay, and discrimination based on disability in public and private sectors. The civil rights act that was amended in 1991 provides for monetary damages in the event that there is evidence that an employee has been discriminated intentionally. There is Title IX enacted in 1992 under the Education Act that forbids discrimination in the education sector. Under the law, it illegal to discriminate an employee against undergoing various educational training programs at the work place based on the individuals’ disability. Moreover, it became illegal to discriminate employees who are pregnant by denying them sick leave and other health benefits. References Adamson J. E. (2008). Law for Business and Personal Use. Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning. Cross F. B. (2007). West’s Legal Environment of Business: Texts and Cases. Ohio: Thomsons Education. Halbert T. and Inguli E. (2011). Law and Ethics in Business Environment. Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning. Kohn S. M. (2011). The Whistleblower’s Handbook: A Step-By-Step Guide to Doing What’s Right and Protecting Yourself. New York: Stephen M. Kohn. Schermerhorn J. R. (2009). Exploring Management. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons Inc. Sham W. H. 2010. Business Ethics. Miami: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Walsh D. J. (2012). Employment Law for Human Resource Practice. Ohio: South-Western Cengage Learning. Read More