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Does your HR know these employment Laws?

I would like to share my own experience with discrimination. I was working as a program supervisor in a team of 20 employees consisting of a Manager, four supervisors, and seventeen coordinators. Each supervisor had to supervise four coordinators and I was given five coordinators to supervise. Also, we were supposed to submit monthly progress reports at the end of the first week each month for the previous month and my peers would always get an extension to submit their monthly reports late while I was submitting my reports on time each month.
However, I raised this issue with my direct supervisor “Program Manager” in our monthly supervision and proposed to him that he needs to treat everyone fairly. He told me “that I’m a good work and can do my job with less instruction, therefore, he focuses more on other supervisors who are elder than you and need more attention to do their job”. Then, I asked my supervisor to recognize my work by raising my salary or give me more time off because I do better than my peers. He said, “ he is unable to increase my salary or give me bonus since he has to treat everyone fairly”. I didn’t agree with his argument because when it came to assignments and workload, he  didn’t think about treating everyone equally and he always gave me more assignments and he wanted to be fair as far as it was related to staff recognition and appraisals.  

It is important to know, that Discrimination is treating, or intention to treat someone unfavorably because of a personal characteristic and it is protected by law.
The Equal Opportunity Act 2010 sets out 18 personal characteristics that make discrimination in employment against the law. Federal anti-discrimination laws also apply to Victorian employers.
Managers/Supervisor should know that employees are protected from discrimination at all stages of employment, including:
·         recruitment, including how positions are advertised and how interviews are conducted
·         being offered unfair terms and conditions of employment
·         being denied training opportunities, promotion, transfers, performance pay or other employment-related benefits 
·         Being unfairly dismissed, retrenched or demoted.

Indeed, my manager was thinking that he is helping the supervisors who were C players but he didn’t understand that he unintentionally was discriminating against me by not helping me and recognizing my hard work and achievements. This behavior has been a challenge in most organizations. Thus, I propose the following strategies/roles for managers and supervisors to observe in order to be fair with all their team members.
Don’t play Favorites:
Managers should not treat staff with different standards of accountability and performance, because this approach is so destructive to employee’s morale.
Managers should not establish different sets of rules for different employees because it is opposite of fairness in work place, poor morale and less than optimal performance across the team. 
Fairness in the Workplace:
When managers treat employees fairly, they focus on work and think out of box to find solution for challenges in work place. They feel respected, cared for, and they develop trust in you as a manager.
Recognize “A” players:
A good manager is one who treats every team members with respect and fairness. Managers should recognize and praise good workers so that to encourage them to keep up the diligent work and also encourage other team members to follow their footsteps.  
Be honest: 
Be honest with your employees and establish an open communication line with. Inform them why things are done as they are. Inform them why a specific procedure/rule was put in place.  When you are honest with them you are treating them equally. They should know that you care about them and they are part of the team and deserve to know what is going on in the program or company.
Be fair in assigning tasks: 
As you assign work, for example, think about whether you are doing it fairly, but also consider how others will perceive it. If you establish a rule that everyone in the team has to submit reports on a certain date, do not change it for some individuals who are unable to meet the deadline, rather help them or ask another team member to help finish reports by a deadline.
In conclusion, I would say it isn't enough to have the policy written and distributed. Managers should conduct team training session on what constitutes discrimination. The Training should be designed to provide details about misconceptions of what is and is not acceptable behavior, language or treatment in work place.  


References:
Discrimination by Type. U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Retrieved from: https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/types/.
Leonard, Kimberlee (2019) Discrimination in work place, retrieved from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/prevent-discrimination-workplace-2853.html
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