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Why do we need to talk about Employment Law

Prior to embarking on addressing the assignment question, I feel I should shed more light on the concept of discrimination and what it means and some of its implications in the work environment and how it can entail serious consequences up to lawsuits if not properly handled or dealt with.
In easy and self-explanatory English, to "discriminate" means to distinguish, single out, or make a distinction. In everyday life, when faced with more than one option, we discriminate in arriving at almost every decision we make. But in the context of civil rights law, unlawful discrimination refers to unfair or unequal treatment of an individual (or group) based on certain characteristics.
According to the article published in 2016 by USLEGAL, the legal definition of discrimination is the treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit.
Brittany Fuhs 2018 affects hiring, firing, promotions, salary, job assignments, training, benefits and/or layoffs, based on a person’s age, gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, national origins or disabilities. Discrimination laws protect both current workers and prospective workers. Any employee who feels they have been discriminated against in the workplace can file a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and possibly file suit against the company.
With respect to job discrimination consequences, Patrick Gleeson, Ph. D. 2019 discusses that Job discrimination is handled by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The penalties differ from one kind of discrimination to another, but in general the maximum civil penalties range from $50,000 for smaller firms to $300,000 for companies with 500 employees or more.
After all these aforementioned explanations provided above, I reckon we then have the same views on discrimination issues. Managers should be very aware of this concept of discrimination so that they create a work environment that is free from discrimination. We know that discrimination may be based on race, religion, origin, nationality, culture. Managers should take into consideration cultural diversity in the work environment in that it plays a big role. Senyucel, Z. (2009) argues that not a single person feels, thinks, hears, sees, tastes, understands and behaves the same way because we come from different cultural, ethnic, national, religious and political backgrounds. That is why managers should embrace, preach and practices nondiscrimination in their work place as discrimination is to be discouraged. Some managers are not fully aware of the serious consequences as it may not seem glaring to them that discrimination brings about lawsuits. Managers need to get robust capacity strengthening support on all forms of discrimination.
In some organizations or companies, there are some managers who overlook this practice of discrimination during the hiring or employment processes.  These really need to get capacitated on this concept of discrimination which tarnishes the company’s reputation. Some of them are less informed on it and do not think that non-compliance with non-discrimination will cause problems.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission identifies various types of workplace discrimination including, age, religion, sex, race, national origin, disability, equal pay, pregnancy, genetic information, harassment (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission).
Because of the emerging issues within companies/organizations management specifically about the intention of violating the organizational policies and procedures, there is strong need to sensitize the managers on the urgent need to be more ethical in the way people run business to avoid audits and lawsuits. Since he person who undergoes discrimination can report to higher federal authorities in charge of handling such cases, managers should increase awareness and be sensitive enough to the discrimination issues. Five years ago, I personally got into contact with one civil society organization whose managers told me that they may find hard to hire handicapped or physically challenged persons for some field positions requiring candidates to be physically fit. I cautioned them that they should not practice discrimination but they argued that realistically speaking they could not hire people with physical disability as they cannot expect them to deliver due to the work conditions in some landscapes.
Regarding the fact that discrimination can be a challenge to create a manager training development session, oftentimes, some companies’ managers do not hold the same views on this concept as explained above. What is viewed to be unfair and unjust treatment for some managers may be considered fair/just treatment by others. Whenever I was preaching about the non-discrimination with 6 organizations I worked with a couple of years ago, some of the board members and senior executives were not convinced about this concept. I shared with them some real cases of discrimination which damaged the reputation of the companies. So, such mangers need real life examples of discrimination and the causes entailed if not properly handled. I would therefore urge those managers to get a tailored capacity strengthening support to increase their awareness and knowledge on this concept of discrimination. In addition to this, they should themselves take initiatives of making thorough research on this topic as there is a plethora of organizations and companies which are suffering because of not taking heed to discrimination. There is also so much literature on this from American and non-American institutions.
Concerning the applicable strategies to address the challenges, it is not easy but it is also feasible, the company should develop a discrimination policy and include it in the Employee Handbook. New hires or existing employees should acknowledge receipt of this policy by signature and HR department should add this to every staff folder. This discrimination policy should clearly state the workplace free from discrimination and outlines necessary steps to report a discrimination complaint.
 Another critical strategy is to establish training for all staff members to raise their awareness and strengthen them on discrimination issues. This training should include tips for identifying discrimination in the workplace, how to avoid discrimination and how to handle discrimination claims. In addition to those points above, any company or organization should engage with an experienced attorney because of the complexities of the discrimination laws, employers should always talk to an attorney any time a discrimination issue arises (Brittany Fuhs 2018).

To sum up, discrimination is a very risky malpractice which, if not handled properly, can be very costly and may damage a company’s reputation. Irrespective of the fact that a company has a couple of employees or a thousand employees, it is very crucial for senior executives or managers to understand exactly what workplace discrimination is and how to avoid it. Rules and regulations are clear for any case of discrimination in the federal laws and elsewhere and these are seriously applied should an employee file a discrimination complaint.

References

Discrimination by Type. U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Retrieved from: https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/types/.

Patrick Gleeson, Ph. D. 2019. What Are the Consequences of Discrimination on the Job? Retrieved from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/consequences-discrimination-job-1312.html 

Senyucel, Z. (2009). Managing Human Resources in the 21st Century. Retrieved from https://bookboon.com/en/hrm-managing-the-human-ressource-ebook
USLEGAL 2016. Discrimination Law and Legal definition.  Retrieved from https://defintions.uslegal.com/d/discrimination/

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