Oklahoma Employment Laws - Essay Example

The Genetic Non-Discrimination Act (36 OS 3614.2) of Oklahoma "cannot discriminate in employment based on results of genetic testing (DNA, RNA, chromosome testing). Except for determining coverage or benefits employer may not even ask for such testing." Federal law provided the Health Insurance and Portability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) to provide some protection against discrimination however this act does not ensure: "the limit of collection by insurers and prohibit them from requiring an individual to take the test further it does not limit the disclosure of information" The provision set forth in the federal law has inclusions that may leave room or excuse for the allowance of such procedure.

HIPAA has not discussed nor assured non-disclosure of such findings, thereby leaving room for doubt with respect to the actual right of the person. For the protection of women workers, the Oklahoma State in its Equal Pay Act (40 OS 198.1), added it "unlawful to willfully pay women employees less than males who are performing comparable work which have comparable requirements relating to skill except when differential is based upon merit system; seniority; a system basing compensation through quantity or quality of production; or any other factor rather than sex.

" Further, this act has added stiff penalties for its violations and delegates the filing of suits to the Department of Labor. The above law is considerably treated as a derivative from the nation's Equal Pay Act(EPA) (29 USC 206d) however the scope sought to broaden and clarify the basis for the comparison cited above.As a diversified state with an economy centered on manufacturing, agriculture, mining, and services, the State of Oklahoma has also provided remarkable protection against smokers or the Smoker's Rights (40 O.S. 500, et seq).

This law considers it illegal for an employer to practice "discrimination against persons who smoke during off-duty hours; discriminate against employees who do not smoke; cannot require an employee to refrain from smoking during off-duty hours unless such is provided by the union contract". Currently, North America is besieged with numerous by-laws against smoking and smokers. Other states have audaciously made it a point to ban smoking in the work premises. Non-smokers would be thankful for the passage of such laws.

However such laws discriminate the person from finding a lucrative job fee from constant reprimand from its management and may affect the behavioral attitude of an employee towards the management and with his co-workers at the same time. Somehow, smokers do have to find work and the government cannot afford an incidence of job displacements because of this particular habit. Finding a conducive place for the release of this habit at a favorably appointed time would be more logical than its outright suppression.

The Discrimination Act in its entirety has carefully enumerated illegal acts of discriminating an individual by virtue of his: race, color and national origin hiring as stated in the Federal Laws.