Discrimination at Work Causing Physical Damage - Essay Example

CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS AND DISCRIMINATION A CASE STUDY ON LABOR AND ISSUES OF DISCRIMINATION AT WORK CAUSING PHYSICAL DAMAGE Case Background Abdul isan Arab-American who, like the other minorities in the society, is finding it hard to look for a job in New York. When he finally lands a decent job within the State Department of Transportation as a flagger among the road crews, he was faced with the challenge of dealing with massive discrimination not only from his co-workers but also directly from his boss. It was unnerving to see how he was treated by his boss Clyde who was an American patriotic. Abdul , being a devoted Muslim, completes his responsibility to pray at least five times a day. He does this without interrupting anybody at work as he silently reads a line from the Koran while he prays during breaks. Although not actually irritating to the others, seeing Abdul pray to his god, Clyde was specifically disliking this fact, as a result, the collision between the two started. However, being the one in the lower level, Abdul knows retaliating to the actions of his boss would simply bring him into a rather complicated situation with his boss. So what he did was to simply allow time to pass through the possibility that somehow his boss might someday give him a break from the discriminative treatment that he is receiving. With the patient dealing of Abdul with the situation, Clyde on the other hand never stopped hatred and continued to discriminate Abdul’s being that later on resulted to more damaging effects on Abdul when he was pushed by Clyde resulting to having three injured bones and causing Abdul’s hospitalization with a high amount of payment needed to complete the medication needs. After which, the worse yet came when he received a pink slip indicating that he was already terminated from his job. Constitutional Issues Brought Up The Constitution of Civil Rights had been rather established to secure the rights of the human individuals living in the human society as they deal with the different people from different races. This set of laws and regulations are all designed to assist each and everyone to realize their worth as persons and realize the fact they are worthy of respect no matter what race or religion they come from. 1Within the paragraphs that follow, the constitutional issues that were raced during the case’s discussion shall be presented so as to give a clear picture as to how or where the situation of Abdul and Clyde could actually be questioned by the law and have the oppressor pay for the damages that he may have caused his victim. ON DISCRIMINATION: The constitutional laws on human rights had been established practically to protect each person from any particular form of discrimination. May it be a personal, religious or racial cause; the set of laws governing the constitution of human civil rights creates a fine outline as to how one is supposed to be treated by the other with ample respect and recognition of his being. 2Each person indeed needs to receive a fair treatment simply because of being a human.3 Direct opposition of this law makes a discriminative oppressor a candidate for criminal case that subjects him to paying ample amount of monetary compensation for the moral damages and civil liabilities that he has caused the victim. On the part of Abdul, his situation was more than just a matter of verbal oppression. Basically, Clyde questioned his personality based on his race and his convictions which is obviously an opposition to the laws and regulations of civil rights against discrimination. Besides that, Abdul never retaliated on the attacks of discrimination that he received from Clyde making him a sole victim and was never an oppressor based on the events that happened in the case. ON LABOR: Practically focusing on the hospital bills and Abdul’s being fired; all these are signs of discrimination that is punishable by law. The health needs of the employees, no matter what race they come from, especially that the accident happened on site of the project that he and his crew mates were finishing, the bills from his medication should be paid by his employer and should not be recorded as his personal bills. Considering that the situation happened on site, he should also be allowed time to recover before he gets back to work thus making him not liable for being fired. This has been the specific guideline given careful attention through the labor law where it is indicated that if an employee incurs injuries especially onsite, he should be provided the ample time of recovery from the injuries, and even be supported with the billing that he is supposed to cover in the hospital through the insurance provisions that the company is required to provide for its employees. As seen from the case of Abdul, he was not given the careful attention and consideration that the company is supposed to provide him with. Besides the fact that this particular situation shows bias between him and his boss as the administration sees them, the company is also liable for the acts of their personnel [Clyde] towards the treatment that he has implied on Abdul while at work. Reflective Reaction Racial separation as well as economic identification among groups of people in the society today is indeed a serious matter that is making life much tensed for some individuals to live with. Likely, such issues set a strong implication as to how a person is expected to face life labelling him or her the identification that has already been set before an individual. This particular truth actually makes it harder for people to make strong amends as to how they are supposed to live with their lives, whether they should follow their dreams or simply stick to what they are known for as a person belonging to a certain group. Having this particular truth covering the systems of the society today though does not mean that a person should care less about the way that he is able to face the challenges that meet him in life. One should not let such stratification keep him away from reaching his dreams and aspirations in life. Instead, such separation should be considered as a challenge that needs to be faced by anyone aiming to succeed in life regardless of the group of society that he belongs to. Abdul were among those who believed that social stratification would not define him for life and that he would at least be given the right chance to receive the right treatment that he deserves as a person. He believed in the capability of the law to protect him from the hands of those partial to race and religion. With all these hopes and trust on the system of the government and how it handles the serious issues of discrimination happening in the society, he still failed to see what controlling power the law has upon these particular kinds of situations. True, from the case of Abdul and Clyde, it could be observed how prejudice directly destroys the human society and the supposed corrective relationship that is needed to be established between people from different cultures. It could be noted that the situation of the two individuals concerned in the case pictures a perfect imbalance of the society that results to dangerous inequalities causing physical and mental as well as psychological damages among those who are oppressed. 4This case should awaken the fact that when something is done resulting to the physical damage and situational imbalance of the recognition and treatment that an individual or a minority receives from the society, there is an obvious dismay and disobedience on the set rules and regulations stated through the Constitution of Civil Rights, which opens the path toward litigation and punishment of the particular oppressors. 5 Conclusion Diversity, when referred to in business terms may mean a lot of things. An organization’s workforce may be referred to as diverse for many reasons as well. Diversity may occur because of the differences of opinion because of the differences in personality, in age, in educational attainment, in status in life and even in culture. Mostly, as observed on different business companies, the main reason of such diversity is the existence of a much distinct group of races making up a single workforce for a company. How could all these happen? As mentioned in the introduction, many people have already transferred from place to place and a lot of those people, the so-called immigrants, have already decided to stay and work on the foreign lands they have gone to. Hence, the main effect of this social move on achieving success on other places, the employment of the multicultural population has been the resort to supporting the lives of the said immigrants. Hence, the workforce of every company making up the business industries are at times are having the same worries on how to face the challenge of dealing with and managing people who are widely different from each other. The certainty of dealing with diverse people in the workforce is around ninety-nine percent. Considering that the human society is now living in a culturally diverse society, it could be argued that a diverse workforce is indeed a challenge to many business managers today. However, at first, this fact may seem a big problem, on the other hand, if the managers are able to see the common ground of everyone else, which is being human, the said managers would recognize the possibility of making diversity a source of further progress for the company. Mixing up the talents and the abilities of the employees for the goal of the organization would surely help the company reach its peak potential. Instead of minding the differences of the people so much and separating one person from the rest because of his religion, his race or his personal identity would only cause problems for the whole organization as per introduced through the case discussed herein. Basically, the process of dealing with diversity may be hard but is never impossible to fulfill especially for managers who are ready to provide the people the hope that they need to survive life as it is regardless of where they come from or what they believe in. It is only through this that the obedience of the law on discrimination and labor code could be given careful attention by business administrators and officials. References: Judge Weeramantry, Christopher G. (1997), Justice Without Frontiers, Brill Publishers, pp. 8, 132, 135. Judge Weeramantry, Christopher G. (1997), Justice Without Frontiers, Brill Publishers, pp. 8, 135, 139–40. Davis, David Brion. The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture. Cornell University Press, 1966, p. 77. Ghilmore, J. 1982. The Libertarian Case for Slavery: A Note on Nozick. Philosophical Forum. XIV (Fall 1982): 43-58. Cassirer, Ernst. The Myth of the State. Yale University Press, 1963, p. 175 Price, Richard. Observations on the Nature of Civil Liberty. 1776, Part I. Reprinted in: Peach, Bernard, (Ed.) Richard Price and the Ethical Foundations of the American Revolution. Duke University Press, 1979, p. 67. Read More