Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 - Essay Example

?Running head: LABOR AND EMPLOYMENT LAW 30th October Situation A To cater for the medical and family reasons, the United States federal government implemented the family and medical leave Act of 1993(FMLA). According to this Act, covered employers are required to provide unpaid leave to their employees of up to 12 weeks for every 12 months. For an employee to qualify for FMLA cover, he or she must be employed by a firm that has more than 50 workers and worked in that firm for 12 months. FMLA is focused at addressing five major issues. First, the Act covers the birth of the employee’s child and the care of the child. Secondly, the Act caters for the placement of an employee’s child for foster care or adoption. Thirdly, family and medical leave Act of 1993 caters for the care of the employee’s parent as well as the child either a daughter or a son with serious health problems (Family and Medical Leave Act Regulations.1990). Fourthly, the FMLA caters for the serious health condition of the workers that makes them not to perform their duties as required by their employers. Fifthly, it caters for any qualifying exigencies that may arise due to the deployment of the employee’s family member. Upon returning from their leave, FMLA requires that the employers must provide the employees with protection and benefits that they may have received if they were working. Most notably, the act covers 4 aspects that the employers must provide to the eligible employees who return from their leave (Galinsky et al, 2008). First, employees must be provided with the health benefits that they would receive if they were working. Secondly, upon returning from the leave, the FMLA requires that the employees must be restored to the same position. In case such position is no longer there, it is the responsibility of the employers to provide the workers with similar position that has same duties and pay (Family and Medical Leave Act Regulations.1990). Thirdly, the benefits of the employees must be reinstated once he or she returns from the leave. Such benefits include the house allowance, transport and entertainment allowances among others. Fourthly, the employee who was on leave due to his or her serious health condition or that of a family member must be allowed to have a leave to attend doctor’s appointments for such cases as chemotherapy and psychological counseling among others. Family and medical leave Act of 1993 requires that an employee must provide an employer with a 30 days notice of his or her intention to take a leave (Family and Medical Leave Act Regulations.1990). In cases the leave comes due to emergency, it is the responsibility of the employees to notify the employers as soon as possible. Similarly, the Act maintains that an employer may request for a medical certification in case the employer is taking a leave due to serious health problem related to him or her or a family member. In situation A, employee A was eligible for the 11 weeks leave since he had worked in company X for 12 years. On his part, the new manager reinstated the employee to his previous job at the previous rate of pay. This indicates that even if the manager was new, he acted within the requirements of Family and medical leave Act of 1993. As indicated earlier, the FMLA indicates that the leave must be unpaid, implying that employee A was not eligible for the salary from his 11 week leave. This indicates that by denying the employee the salary, the manager did not violate the law and as such there was no violation that occurred in this situation A. Situation B Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) gives protection to the employees who are 40 years and above from been discriminated by their employers (Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967). According to this Act, that covers both the job applicant and the existing employees, it is unlawful for any employer to discriminate a worker based on his or her old age in respect to the employment benefits that includes training, promotion, hiring, increased responsibilities and increased salaries among others. ADEA covers the employers with 20 or more workers. Some of the notable protections provided by ADEA includes: first, it is unlawful to include age preferences in job advertisements unless it is of great importance to the organization. Secondly, it is unlawful to give age limitation in the apprenticeship programs unless exemptions are provided by the Act (Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967). Thirdly, even though the employers are at liberty to ask for age during interviews, such request must comply with the law as depicted by ADEA. Fourthly, employers are not supposed to deny older workers employment benefits based on their age. However, the amendment done on ADEA the by the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act of 1990 indicated that employers can give lower benefits to old workers only if the cost associated with those benefits are equal to the cost of giving benefits to the workers who are younger in age. In situation B, the employee B is aged 68 years indicating that he is supposed to be protected by the ADEA. Despite his above average performance after the job evaluation, the employer did not promote him due to his old age. This is contrary to the provisions of Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967. This implies that the employer acted in an unlawful way thus resulting to violation of law in situation B. Situation C Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), was sponsored by Tom Harkin, a renowned US senator. The Act gives protection to disabled individuals in respect to employment, public accommodation, government activities, transport and communication (Americans with Disabilities Act 1990). In order to ensure that the Act is effective in prohibiting discrimination of disabled American citizens, the government through the Department of labor has established four agencies that are responsible for enforcing the Act. These include Department of Justice, Federal Communication Commission, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Department of Transportation. Additionally, the government established Access Board that is responsible for ensuring that public facilities, transport vehicles and buildings are usable by individuals who are disabled (Americans with Disabilities Act 1990). In order for a person to be under the protection of ADA, he or she must be disabled or one must be associated with a disabled person. Disability according to ADA includes mental or physical mutilation that limits an individual to access normal activities in life (Americans with Disabilities Act 1990). According to ADA Title I, that relates to employment of disabled individuals, employers are not supposed to discriminate an applicant on the basis of his or her disability. Likewise, disabled employees are protected from discrimination during the job training, promotion, compensation and access to employment benefits. Similarly, ADA Title II section one covers accessibility of public facilities by disabled individuals (Wolffe, 2008). According to ADA Title III, it is unlawful for employers not to remove architectural barriers in their places of work in order to ensure easier movement of employees who are disabled. In situation C, applicant C who was disabled was denied employment on the basis of his disability. This is contrary to the requirements of Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. According to the management of Company X, his employment would cause undue hardship to the firm. However, according to ADA Title III, it is the responsibility of the employer to ensure that proper architectural adjustments are done on his or her premises to cater for the disabled employees. Since, company X acted against the provision of ADA, it resulted to unlawful conduct thus resulting to a violation in situation C. References Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967. Available from http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/age.html. Retrieved October 29, 2013. Americans with Disabilities Act 1990. Available from http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/disability/ada.htm. Retrieved October 29, 2013. Family and Medical Leave Act Regulations.1990. A Report on the Department of Labor’s Request for Information. Department of Labor, Employment Standards Administration, Wage and Hour Division. Federal Register, Vol. 72, No. 124. Galinsky, E., Bond, J., Sakai, K., Kim, S., Giuntoli, N. (2008). National study of employers. New York: Families and Work Institute. Wolffe, J. (2008). New wheelchair seats will be full at U-M's Big House. New York: The Oakland Press. Read More