Human Resources Managent - Equal Employment Opportinunity - Essay Example

Equal Employment Opportunity There should be equal employment opportunities in organizations. And there are certain laws such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which apply to organizations with more than 15 people which do not allow such acts of discrimination in the organization on the basic of caste, color, creed, sex etc. There is even a law which protects the aged from being discriminated against and provides them with additional benefits in the workplace. And in order to prove in some cases that there is no discrimination that has taken place, tests like McDonnell Douglas test are conducted in which the Supreme Court judges whether an act conducted by the organization was discriminatory or not and if the court perceives it to be a discriminatory act then it is usually discontinued unless three defenses are presented by the employer; business necessity, which is the expectation to perform by all employees, bona fide occupational qualifications, which are requirements of a job by organizations in order to meet the criteria of that firm and lastly, seniority systems, which allow certain discriminatory acts to occur, if they are established by a senior law (DeCenzo 150).

There are certain cases in history which are worth revisiting in order to implement equal opportunities with ease in the workplace, such as the case in Davis Medical School in 1978, where they failed to set aside any seats for minority students which was a clear case of discrimination. And these cases may apply similarly or differently to different countries. Sexual harassment is also one of the issues that violate equality in the workplace, especially towards women. It can be physical or verbal in nature, and may involve the employee’s work, environment or their growth opportunities (Giele & Stebbins 39).

Women, even in this day and age, face a great deal of issues in this phenomenon of equal employment. Even if they do, they are not in the same posts, or getting the same pay as men. Organizations should be more sensitive towards women, and payments, posts etc. should be made according to their merit and comparable worth, and the glass ceiling that is restricting women in the workplace should be removed (Boland 170).This issue of equality among employees is one of the most pressing issues for the human resource department of organizations and many laws have been enacted to keep their rights in place.

These include the Privacy Act of 1974, which makes it compulsory for organizations to make available to their employees all the important records as well as their own personal records in the company. There are also acts which prohibit the use of drugs in the workplace to keep it safe for employees to work, as well as using drugs on them to use them for some sort of information or testing. Employees are also protected if they report their company’s wrong doing and the company could do them harm, or from any kind of theft or threat to their life’s security or well-being (DeCenzo 148).

However, employers can dismiss employees at any point in time unless; there is a law that states otherwise, employees have a legal agreement to stay and lastly, if their employer asks them to indulge in some illegal activity. There always needs to be discipline in the organization, and everybody has to follow the set rules and regulations of the workplace; nevertheless, there are ways of getting they discipline implemented without violated the rights of the employees. And if after ample warning, and consistently telling the employee of their irregularity or lack of discipline in accordance with the organizations rules, one can dismiss the employee.

Lastly, in order to understand more about employees and enhance their equality, one should have counseling for employees to understand what they feel about the workplace, and suggestions and feedback from employees in order to decipher them better (DeCenzo 140). Works CitedBoland, Mary L. Sexual harassment in the workplace. Sphinx Pub, 2005.David A. DeCenzo, Stephen P. Robbins. Fundamentals of human resource management. Wiley, 2007.Giele, Janet Zollinger and Leslie F Stebbins. Women and equality in the workplace : a reference handbook.

ABC-CLIO, 2003.