Work place discrimination
Work place discrimination refers to when hiring/firing, promoting, or rewarding takes place based on a person’s age, gender, sexual orientation or disabilities instead of his/her job performances. To reduce work place discrimination, manager might want to safeguard the process to prevent work place discrimination. So, managers might want to pay attention to see if there are discriminatory behaviors occurring in ways of low morale, work conflicts, not having flexible working arrangement for older workers, not establishing a clear policy for dealing with problems in a workplace, and etc. (AllBusiness Editors, n. d.).
While dealing with workplace discrimination, manager can act:
. Paying attention to the laws such as the Fair Labor Standards Act, and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. (Thibodeaux, n. d.).
. Checking if there is a bias that is occurred by stereotypes
. Encouraging communication/interaction
. Getting the truth out and to seeking ways to avoid the similar events that could occurred
. Addressing the benefits of cultural diversity and showing respects to the diversity
. Creating a work environment that is encouraging, and speaking-up to both favor and unflavored behaviors (Gurchiek, 2018)
Work place sexual harassment
A sexual harassment occurs when an unwelcome verbal or physical conduct has taken place which is prohibited by law. There are forms of sexual harassment. For instance:
. The sexual harasser could be a coworker, a management personnel, a customer, or a vendor.
. Both men and women could be the victims.
. The harasser can be a man or a woman.
. An employee attempts a conduct with a person, who might not welcome the conduct. that would be a harassment.
. A supervisor calls female employees “batches”; it could be a harassment.
. Making physical conducts that show hostility toward an employee.
. Making verbal statements that express hostility toward an employee (Franke et al, 2012).
Dealing with workplace harassment, a HR manager needs to see if there is a misunderstanding, or a false accusation. If not, the HR manager may start the legal procedure to begin a law suit or have the harasser punished (Heathfield, 2018). Handling the filed harassment complaint, a HR manager needs to express his/her concern by saying “thank you for reporting”. Also, the manager needs to listen carefully to get the truth out, to show his/her understanding in what the person has gone through, and to keep this case confidential (Forbes Human Resources Council, 2018).
Employment Laws
There are employment laws to abide by in the workplace:
. Job discrimination. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits people from discriminating in hiring, firing, or paying based on a person’s race, religion, and sex.
. Overtime/minimum wages. It requires time- and -a-half overtime pay for hourly employees who work more than 40 hours in a workweek.
. Family leave. If a worker has worked over a year, employees are able to take up to 12 weeks per year of an unpaid leave for the birth of a child, for the adoption a child, or for taking care of a sick family member.
. Age discrimination. Employer/employees can’t discriminate against employees, who are older than 40 years old.
. Disability discrimination. Employees can’t discriminate against people who have disabilities.
. Military leave. If a uniformed service employee has come back from military service within 5 years, he/she should be able to return to his/her old job.
. Gender-pay differences. Employers can’t pay female employees less than male employees for an equal work/job.
. Workplace safety. The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) requires employers to run a business free from recognized hazards (HR Specialist, 2013).
Conclusion
A HR professional’s job would be to understand, describe and interpret the concepts of discrimination either in ways of sex harassment or other kinds of workplace discriminations. Also, a HR professional’s job would be to explain/interpret the workplace related laws to guide/ lead managers and employees. As a HR professional, the most challenging event in managing workplace behaviors would be how to define a workplace sexual harassment. It would be critical in how to outline the procedures in filling a complaint, and how to issue the corrections/penalties after the harassment is confirmed (Heathfield, 2018).
Reference
AllBusiness Editors. (n. d.). Dealing with Discrimination in the Workplace. Retrieved from https://www.allbusiness.com/dealing-with-discrimination-in-the-workplace-11554-1.html
Forbes Human Resources Council. (2018). When an Employee Files a Harassment Complaint, Here’s What HR Needs to Do First. Retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeshumanresourcescouncil/when-on-employee-files/
Franke, L., Gentry. J., Hackerott, C. L., Hammonds, D., Hensen, H., Kapusta, K., Pavich, M., Stephanides, D., Waltermath, J., Wolf, P. (2012). Basic Employment Law Manual for Managers and Supervisors. 8thEdition. Chicago: CCH.
Gurchiek, K. (2018). 5 Steps HR can Take to End Workplace Harassment. Retrieved from: https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/behavioral-competencies/global-and-cultural-effectiveness/pages/5-steps-hr-can-take-to-end-workplace-harrassment.aspx
Heathfield, S. (2018). How to Handle an Employee Sexual Harassment Complaint? Retrieved from: https://www.thebalancecareers.com/how-to-address-on-employee-sexual-harrassment-complaint-1916862
HR Specialist. (2013). The 1 Employment Laws Every Manager Should Know. Retrieved from:
https://www.thehrspecialist.com/3473/the-10-employment-laws-every-manager-should-know
Thibodeaux, W. (n. d.). The Importance of Employment Laws and Compliance with Intentions of the Law. Retrieved from: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-employmnet-laws-compliance-intentions-laws-12322.html
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