Business Law Chap 24

Disparate Impact

A form of discrimination that arises when an employer's policy or practice appears to apply to everyone equally but its actual effect is that it disproportionately limits employment opportunities for a protected class

Disparate Treatment

A form of intentional discrimination in which an employee is hired, fined, denied a promotion, or the like, based on membership in a protected class. This is a form of intentional discrimination.

Unemployment Compensation

A state system, created by the Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA), that provides unemployment compensation to qualified employees who lose their job.

National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)

An administrative agency created by the Wagner Act to interpret and enforce the National Labor Relations Act.

Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA)

Federal Law that sets minimum standards for most voluntarily established pension and health plans in private industry to provide protection for individuals in these plans.

Landrum-Griffin Act

Federal Legislation that primarily governs the internal operations of labor unions. It requires financial disclosures by unions, establishes penalties for financial abuses by union officials, and includes "Labor's Bill of Rights" to protect employees from their own unions.

Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)

Federal act requiring employers to provide all eligible employees with up to 12 weeks of leave during a 12 month period for several family-related occurrences like **birth, adoption, foster child, care of a spouse/child/parent, serious health condition**

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Federal law (amended by the Civil rights Act of 1991) that protects employees against discrimination based on race, color, religion, national origin, and sex; also prohibits harassment based on the same protected categories.

Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)

Federal law requiring a minimum wage of a specified amount be paid to all employees in covered industries; also mandates that employees who work more than 40 hours a week be paid no less than 1 and a half times their regular wage for all hours beyond 40 worked in a given week.

Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA)

Federal law that ensures that when employees lose their jobs or have their hours reduced to a level at which they would not be eligible to receive medical, dental, or optical benefits from their employer, the employees will be able to continue receiving benefits under their employer's policy for up to 18 months by paying the premiums for the policy.

Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) of 1970

Federal law that established the occupational safety and health administration, the agency responsible for setting safety standards under the act and enforcing the act through inspections and the levying of fines against violators.

Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) of 1986

Federal law that extended employees' privacy rights to electronic forms of communication, including e-mail and cellular phones; outlaws the intentional interception of electronic communications and the intentional disclosure or use of the information obtained through such interception.

Equal Pay Act (EPA) of 1963

Federal law that prohibits an employer from paying workers of one gender less that the wages paid to employees of the opposite gender for work that requires equal skill, effort, and responsibility

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

Federal law that prohibits discrimination against employees and job applicants with disabilities

Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) of 1967

Federal law that prohibits employers from refusing to hire, discharging, or discriminating in terms and conditions of employment on the basis of an employee or applicant being age 40 or older.

Taft-Hartley Act

Federal legislation designed to curtail some of the powers that unions had acquired under the Wagner Act; designates certain union actions as unfair. Also called Labor-Management Relations Act.

Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968

Federal statute banning employers from listening to the private telephone conversations of employees or disclosing the contents of these conversations. Employers may ban personal calls and monitor calls for compliance as long as they discontinue listening to any conversation once they determine it is personal.

Workers' compensation laws

State laws that provide for financial compensation to employees or their dependents when a covered employee is injured on the job

Wagner Act

The first major piece of federal legislation adopted explicitly to encourage the formation of labor unions and provide for collective bargaining between employers and unions as a means of obtaining the peaceful settlement of labor disputes.

Collective Bargaining

The process whereby workers organize collectively and bargain with employers regarding the workplace. What unions use to protect workers

Sexual Harassment

Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature that makes submission a condition of employment decisions or that creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment. The two types are hostile environment and quid pro quo.