Answer the specific questions asked at the end of the following essay based on the fact situation provided. Your answer should be completed and in essay form. Explain the legal basis behind your answer and present the basic background legal principles before coming to a conclusion.

You are the HR compliance officer for Midtown Medical Center, a sprawling medical facility that includes an acute care hospital, outpatient clinics and multiple ambulatory services. At the time, the facility has well over 500 employees. Over the last 5 years the hospital has been sued multiple times for various allegations of discrimination in hiring and firing of employees and harassment. You have been consulted by the CEO regarding the problem with discrimination cases, a topic she admitted having limited knowledge of. You have been asked to write a memo describing to her (1) what discrimination is, (2) to whom and how the federal laws apply and to broadly describe some recommendations on actions the organization can take to avoid future claims. Limit your answer to federal laws.

 

Discrimination at workplace denies the firm to reap from the tree of diversity. Most organizations have experienced the competitive edge that accompany a diversified workplace. This is so, because different people use different methods to achieve the same goals and objectives. However, discrimination against such individuals or groups in society saw the compilation of guidelines in the Federal Laws to protect specific people at their work stations as discussed below.

Step-by-step explanation

 What is discrimination; Discrimination is unfavorable treatment to an individual or group of persons in the society based on physical, psychological, or mental attributes they portray and these features may be ill-perceived as jeopardizing their efficiency in the overall team of persons.

 To whom and how the federal laws apply

So, in a bid to control prevalence of discrimination was the Federal laws enacted and formulated to redress, monitor and control discrimination incidences. This Law has protects several categories of persons.

To begin with, discrimination against age is spelt out in the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967(ADEA). This law protects individuals who have attained forty years and above. The basis of discrimination against may be arising from issues such as conditions or privileges of employment. For example , the employer may be using outdated and discriminative compensation and benefit packages that does not favor individuals that may be incapacitated due to old age. As such, the employer is guided to put in place packages that is also cushioning the elderly in their work stations. Also, the elderly may be discriminated against in the process of staffing. To address these, and other discrimination challenges in the organization, the ADEA categorically prohibits an organization in the following ways:

• Not to include statements or specification suggesting the preferred age of applicants while advertising vacant positions in their firms.
• Not to discriminate against employees while rolling out programs meant for developing the skills and capacities of their workforce.
• The law spells out that the benefits being given to young employees should also be applicable to to the elderly.

Interestingly, it is noteworthy that age limit may only be specified when it falls on the categories of jobs that age have been proven as a vital factor that guarantees. Similarly, the employer is allowed to decrease benefits of the elderly workforce in situation where the opportunity cost of providing the reduced benefit to older employee is equal to providing similar benefits to young personnel.

Another category of employee(s) protected by the Federal Laws are people with disabilities. The American with Disability Act of 1990 (ADA), recognizes possibility of discrimination by a mere fact of being physically handicapped. ADA have been further subdivided into five sections (Titles) that resonates to the general public. The essence of ADA is to ensure that people with disability enjoys similar rights and opportunities as everyone anywhere without disability. For example, in Title I , the employer is compelled to re-design and restructure work environment to accommodate qualified candidates that may be having physical impairments. As a result discrimination on the basis of disability is minimized at workplace.

Furthermore, Title VII of the Civic Right Act of 1964 (Title VII) addresses discrimination which may arise from color, national origin, race, sex, and, religion. The law judges on the intentions and practices of the management. For example, on the spectrum of national origin discrimination, it may challenge the basis of this law when employer insists that employees only speak in English while they are at their work stations. Also, it does not allow discrimination against employees because of his culture, language, place of birth or lineage. The Act instructs the employer also to accommodate divergent religious beliefs by not discriminating individual workers of subscribing to a particular social groups such as Muslim society, Buddhist, Christian etc. Sex Discrimination in Title VII covers distinctively two groups of employees. First, it covers Sexual Harassment where workers may be asked for sexual favors by their seniors in order to be promoted to higher ranking offices within the firm. The environment of work should not be hostile that places either gender susceptible to sexual harassment. Lastly, it addresses pregnancy based discrimination. An employer should not have skeptical opinion against pregnant workers given that pregnancy is temporal condition. So, when offering jobs, qualified candidates, even though they may be pregnant at their time of application should be given chance to prove their worth in the organization.

Subsequently, Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA), protects both gender (men and women) against discrimination that might arise at workplace when performing similar work and in the rank and department but are paid the same amount of wages and salaries. This Act prevent employer from equalizing wage rate of either men or women by reducing. This law also protect employees against unscrupulous Trade Union practices of colluding with the employer to cut their pay. In addition to EPA, this Act prevent different wages paid to current and previous opposite sex from being different.

In conclusion, The Federal Law ensures that all sphere of people irrespective of their social status within the country are issued with similar opportunities to assume either private or public offices.

Recommendations on actions the organization can take to avoid future claims;

To ensure that the organizations is not frequently at logger heads with the legal framework the management should should adopt the following:

Formalize the policy and the consequence; By ensuring that the management include the requirements of Federal Laws in their policies and procedures will help in abating the situation legal battles.

Communicate and educate your management; Communication will help in creating awareness and sensitizing the management on the legal ramification that their purported actions and intentions predispose the organization to public outrage. Education through the training programs within the organization can create a fodder to roll out the sensitizing of both the management and the employees.

Respond quickly; After creation of an awareness the organization should also attach disciplinary actions and procedures that shall be employed in an event of breaching this directive. Consequently, the management should act with promptness to redress the reported cases and incidences of discrimination.

Creation of discrimination department and reporting channels within the firm; HR department may be overwhelmed with managerial issues in a way that they may not with expected speed address conflicts and disputes that might be concerning discrimination cases, so, creation of a unit that is purely concerned with such cases will help the plaintiffs to acquire justice faster. Also, the department should coordinate with organization legal department to ensure they keep abreast with the law. Also, the management should create a system that helps them in getting feedback from its public given that sometimes the discrimination against might have been suffered by a member of the public who wished to join the company.

Do not play favorites; The management should also ensure that they do not play favorite while addressing cases emanating from discrimination clams or not using managerial practices that fuel the engine of discrimination. For example, such practices may be seen on how the carry out their staffing process.

Discrimination at workplace denies the firm to reap from the tree of diversity. Most organizations have experienced the competitive edge that accompany a diversified workplace. This is so, because different people use different methods to achieve the same goals and objectives. However, discrimination against such individuals or groups in society saw the compilation of guidelines in the Federal Laws to protect specific people at their work stations as discussed below.

Step-by-step explanation

 What is discrimination; Discrimination is unfavorable treatment to an individual or group of persons in the society based on physical, psychological, or mental attributes they portray and these features may be ill-perceived as jeopardizing their efficiency in the overall team of persons.

 To whom and how the federal laws apply

So, in a bid to control prevalence of discrimination was the Federal laws enacted and formulated to redress, monitor and control discrimination incidences. This Law has protects several categories of persons.

To begin with, discrimination against age is spelt out in the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967(ADEA). This law protects individuals who have attained forty years and above. The basis of discrimination against may be arising from issues such as conditions or privileges of employment. For example , the employer may be using outdated and discriminative compensation and benefit packages that does not favor individuals that may be incapacitated due to old age. As such, the employer is guided to put in place packages that is also cushioning the elderly in their work stations. Also, the elderly may be discriminated against in the process of staffing. To address these, and other discrimination challenges in the organization, the ADEA categorically prohibits an organization in the following ways:

• Not to include statements or specification suggesting the preferred age of applicants while advertising vacant positions in their firms.
• Not to discriminate against employees while rolling out programs meant for developing the skills and capacities of their workforce.
• The law spells out that the benefits being given to young employees should also be applicable to to the elderly.

Interestingly, it is noteworthy that age limit may only be specified when it falls on the categories of jobs that age have been proven as a vital factor that guarantees. Similarly, the employer is allowed to decrease benefits of the elderly workforce in situation where the opportunity cost of providing the reduced benefit to older employee is equal to providing similar benefits to young personnel.

Another category of employee(s) protected by the Federal Laws are people with disabilities. The American with Disability Act of 1990 (ADA), recognizes possibility of discrimination by a mere fact of being physically handicapped. ADA have been further subdivided into five sections (Titles) that resonates to the general public. The essence of ADA is to ensure that people with disability enjoys similar rights and opportunities as everyone anywhere without disability. For example, in Title I , the employer is compelled to re-design and restructure work environment to accommodate qualified candidates that may be having physical impairments. As a result discrimination on the basis of disability is minimized at workplace.

Furthermore, Title VII of the Civic Right Act of 1964 (Title VII) addresses discrimination which may arise from color, national origin, race, sex, and, religion. The law judges on the intentions and practices of the management. For example, on the spectrum of national origin discrimination, it may challenge the basis of this law when employer insists that employees only speak in English while they are at their work stations. Also, it does not allow discrimination against employees because of his culture, language, place of birth or lineage. The Act instructs the employer also to accommodate divergent religious beliefs by not discriminating individual workers of subscribing to a particular social groups such as Muslim society, Buddhist, Christian etc. Sex Discrimination in Title VII covers distinctively two groups of employees. First, it covers Sexual Harassment where workers may be asked for sexual favors by their seniors in order to be promoted to higher ranking offices within the firm. The environment of work should not be hostile that places either gender susceptible to sexual harassment. Lastly, it addresses pregnancy based discrimination. An employer should not have skeptical opinion against pregnant workers given that pregnancy is temporal condition. So, when offering jobs, qualified candidates, even though they may be pregnant at their time of application should be given chance to prove their worth in the organization.

Subsequently, Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA), protects both gender (men and women) against discrimination that might arise at workplace when performing similar work and in the rank and department but are paid the same amount of wages and salaries. This Act prevent employer from equalizing wage rate of either men or women by reducing. This law also protect employees against unscrupulous Trade Union practices of colluding with the employer to cut their pay. In addition to EPA, this Act prevent different wages paid to current and previous opposite sex from being different.

In conclusion, The Federal Law ensures that all sphere of people irrespective of their social status within the country are issued with similar opportunities to assume either private or public offices.

Recommendations on actions the organization can take to avoid future claims;

To ensure that the organizations is not frequently at logger heads with the legal framework the management should should adopt the following:

Formalize the policy and the consequence; By ensuring that the management include the requirements of Federal Laws in their policies and procedures will help in abating the situation legal battles.

Communicate and educate your management; Communication will help in creating awareness and sensitizing the management on the legal ramification that their purported actions and intentions predispose the organization to public outrage. Education through the training programs within the organization can create a fodder to roll out the sensitizing of both the management and the employees.

Respond quickly; After creation of an awareness the organization should also attach disciplinary actions and procedures that shall be employed in an event of breaching this directive. Consequently, the management should act with promptness to redress the reported cases and incidences of discrimination.

Creation of discrimination department and reporting channels within the firm; HR department may be overwhelmed with managerial issues in a way that they may not with expected speed address conflicts and disputes that might be concerning discrimination cases, so, creation of a unit that is purely concerned with such cases will help the plaintiffs to acquire justice faster. Also, the department should coordinate with organization legal department to ensure they keep abreast with the law. Also, the management should create a system that helps them in getting feedback from its public given that sometimes the discrimination against might have been suffered by a member of the public who wished to join the company.

Do not play favorites; The management should also ensure that they do not play favorite while addressing cases emanating from discrimination clams or not using managerial practices that fuel the engine of discrimination. For example, such practices may be seen on how the carry out their staffing process.