Chapter 16

Which of the following is an amendment to the Civil Rights Act of 1964:

EEOC, Pregnancy discrimination, civil rights act of 1991

The drive for civil rights in employment and other aspects of life became a national movement in the:

Early 1960's

The agency given the power to file suits against employers and unions believed to be violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act is the:

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

The first federal law that specifically addressed equal employment issues was the:

Equal Pay Act of 1963

It is illegal to pay men and women employees different wages when their jobs require which of the following:

Equal skill, equal effort, equal responsibility, same working conditions

The most important antidiscrimination employment law is:

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

A Title VII claim of color discrimination could include a suit by a dark-skinned black person for job bias by a lighter-skinned black person.

True

A defense in suits for discrimination based on religion is that accommodation of religious beliefs would impose undue hardship on the employer.

True

A person age 19 may not claim protection under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.

True

A person may be covered by the American with Disabilities Act even if the person is not disabled, but other people think the person is disabled.

True

A standardized employment test that tends to screen out people with disabilities is likely to be illegal under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

True

A valid defense to an age discrimination charge would be that the employer observes the terms of a real seniority system.

True

A worker who is too obese to handle certain physical aspects of a job can be fired and not receive protection under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

True

According to the Supreme Court, in Burlington Industries v. Ellerth, an employer is much less likely to be liable for sexual harassment by a supervisor if the employer had an effective program in place to handle discrimination complaints by employees.

True

According to the Supreme Court, in Pennsylvania State Police v. Suders, vicarious liability is not likely to be imposed on an employer for employment discrimination if an employee who suffered discrimination failed to take advantage of a quality complaint process that existed within the organization before bringing suit.

True

Affirmative action is largely based on an executive order of the President.

True

Affirmative action programs may be imposed on employers with 50 or more employees who do $50,000 or more business with the federal government.

True

An employer who refuses to hire someone because they have been addicted to drugs or alcohol may be violating the Americans with Disabilities Act.

True

An example of a disability covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act is a serious heart attack.

True

Baylor University, a Baptist school, may require that all professors who teach Baptist theology be Baptists.

True

Choosing to promote a younger person rather than an older person, because the older person is likely to retire in several years, may violate the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.

True

Companies that use professionally developed ability tests to screen job applicants are required to supply statistical validation of the tests.

True

Comparing the race and sex composition of a company's workforce to the relevant labor market is an aspect of affirmative action called underutilization analysis.

True

Discrimination based on color has not produced as much litigation as other classes used in discrimination suits.

True

Disparate impact employment discrimination is based on UNintentional actions that cause employment discrimination.

True

Employers are legally obliged to make reasonable accommodations for workers with disabilities.

True

Employers are not responsible for employees showing pornography at work that happens to offend women employees.

True

Employers are permitted to differentiate among job applicants to make hiring decisions. The constraint the federal government puts on this process is that it limits the grounds upon which an employer may differentiate.

True

Employers have the right to monitor employee's e-mails in the workplace and may do so, in part, to prevent sexual harassment.

True

Employers may discriminate against persons over the age of 40, if there is a bona fide occupational qualification for a certain job that makes performance difficult for older people.

True

Employers may not discriminate in employment based on genetic information.

True

Employers may put in place a "flexible" affirmative action program.

True

If a court finds that a worker suffered illegal discrimination in employment, in addition to back wages the worker may be granted artificial seniority.

True

If a plaintiff meets the discrimination test announced by the Court in McDonnell-Douglas, the plaintiff has a prima facie case of discrimination.

True

If a plaintiff, who has filed a Title VII case, proves a prima facie case of discrimination, the burden is on the defendant to present evidence that the claim is untrue or that there is a legitimate reason for the action taken.

True

If an employee is "driven away" from their job and quits due to discriminatory abuse, there is said to be constructive discharge that may be actionable under Title VII.

True

If an employee makes a prima facie case of employment discrimination, the employer must give a nondiscriminatory reason for the decision that was made.

True

If an employer denies a female worker a promotion because she is pregnant, the employer has violated the Pregnancy Discrimination Act.

True

If an employer does not send a worker to an assignment in Pakistan because she is pregnant, because the employer is concerned about the quality of medical care there, the employer may be liable for sex discrimination.

True

If an employer makes an employee's working conditions "intolerable" due to racial harassment, so the employee resigns, there may be a Title VII discrimination suit that is called disparate treatment.

True

If an employer pays women greater retirement benefits than it pays its male employees, because the employer knows that women, on average, live longer than men, this is likely to be illegal disparate treatment.

True

If an older worker is fired instead of a worker under age 40, but the younger worker has more seniority on the job, the employer has not violated the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.

True

If company rules can be shown to discriminate against certain employees, the company may be able to justify these rules as a "business necessity."

True

If the EEOC believes a Title VII complaint has at least some merit, they give the person bringing the complaint a "right-to-sue" letter.

True

In EEOC v. Dial Corp. the EEOC found that the strength test used by Dial did not meet the business necessity defense as it was not related to job performance.

True

In EEOC v. Dial Corp. the EEOC found that the strength test used by Dial violated the rule against disparate impact in workplace requirements.

True

In EEOC v. Dial Corp., where an employer used a test of strength to screen job applicants for ability to do the job, the appeals court held that the test was NOT A VALID way to select employees and served to discriminate against women.

True

In Harris v. Forklift Systems, Harris successfully sued her employer after her boss sexually insulted her and she quit.

True

In Keith v. County of Oakland, where the County refused to hire Keith as a swimming lifeguard because he is deaf, and he sued for disability discrimination, the appeals court held that the County failed to consider the evidence that he was capable of performing the job despite his disability.

True

In Lewis v. Heartland Inns of America the appeals court held that Lewis presented a prima facie case of discrimination and that Heartland's defense appeared to be a pretext.

True

In Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services the Supreme Court held that a claim of sexual harassment made by a male employee did fall under Title VII.

True

In Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services the Supreme Court held that when reviewing claims of sexual harassment the courts should use "common sense."

True

In a few situations, such as modeling clothing, an employer may discriminate on the basis of sex as a bona fide occupational qualification.

True

In a few situations, such as those involving personal privacy, an employer may discriminate on the basis of sex as a bona fide occupational qualification.

True

In cases of affirmative action, the courts have held that discrimination in favor of qualified women or minority workers may be legal.

True

In reviewing employment discrimination cases, the Supreme Court has noted that the employment relationship is rooted in agency law so vicarious liability can be imposed on the employer for discriminatory practices not properly controlled.

True

It is not a violation of the ADA to ask an employee if a work assignment might be modified to help accommodate their disability.

True

It would be age discrimination for an employer to advertise that it wants to hire a young, dynamic person for a position working with young people that requires a high-level of energy and the ability to relate to teenagers.

True

Lawsuits brought under the Americans with Disabilities Act, are generally handled in the same manner as suits brought under Title VII.

True

Race discrimination is the most common claim made under Title VII.

True

Sexual harassment may include promises of career advancement in return for sexual favors.

True

Some states have laws making it illegal to discriminate against employees on the basis of marital status.

True

Some states have laws making it illegal to discriminate against employees on the basis of sexual identity, but Title VII does not make it illegal.

True

The EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) is the main federal agency responsible for enforcing Title VII.

True

The EEOC enforces a law prohibiting discrimination in employment based on genetic information.

True

The Equal Pay Act allows pay differentials between men and women if based on a merit system.

True

The Supreme Court has held that the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects white males against employment discrimination based on race.

True

The Supreme Court has held that, when reviewing sexual harassment cases, one should use the perspective of a reasonable person in the same circumstances.

True

The Supreme Court has upheld seniority systems even when they maintain the effects of past discrimination.

True

The first kind of employment discrimination to be specifically addressed by federal legislation concerned sex discrimination.

True

The most important source of discrimination in employment rules is Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

True

Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act does not protect against employment discrimination based on disabilities.

True

Title VII provides equal employment opportunity protection for people who are members of "protected classes."

True

To avoid a charge of employment discrimination based on religion, an employer must make reasonable accommodations but need not spend more than a minimal amount to do so.

True

To prove discrimination under Title VII, a plaintiff must prove, among other elements of proof, that he or she is a member of a protected class, and that there was an adverse job action.

True

To require employees to retire at age 70 would usually violate the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.

True

Under Title VII, for certain jobs religious organizations may legally hire only members of a particular religion.

True

Under Title VII, it is illegal to perpetuate a past pattern of intentional employment discrimination.

True

Under Title VII, race includes white, black, Hispanic, Asian and American Indians.

True

Under Title VII, recognized races include white and black.

True

Under Title VII, the definition of sex is only gender-male or female-not sexual orientation.

True

Under Title VII, there is an official list of races.

True

Under Title VII, workers discriminated against may collect punitive damages.

True

Under the Equal Pay Act, differences in wages between men and women are allowed if they are due to a seniority system or to a system based on productivity.

True

Under the common law employers were generally free to discriminate as they wished.

True

Unions and employers with fifteen or more members or employees are subject to Title VII.

True

When a person believes she or he has been the victim of discrimination covered by Title VII, the first step is to file a complaint with the federal or a state equal employment opportunity agency.

True

Workers who win an age discrimination suit may not collect punitive damages.

True

You would expect that it would be illegal for an employer to have an education requirement, such as a high school diploma, unless there could be shown to be a business necessity behind the requirement.

True

The Equal Pay Act allows differences in wages between men and women employees if the differences are due to:

a system that measures earnings by quantity produced or a merit system or a seniority system

Historically, the common law permitted employers to:

hire and fire which ever workers they wished

Individual states:

may have civil rights acts that apply to employers exempt from Title VII

Violations of the Equal Pay Act can result in what corrective action? Employees:

paid too little must be given back wages to equalize their past low earnings and who successfully sue their employer may be awarded attorney's fees and court costs and paid too little may be given a payment beyond the amount of back wages they are due to penalize the employer

Jim Crow laws were federal and state laws that:

supported, and even required, racial segregation and labor market discrimination

A work environment that includes degrading sexual behavior can produce a hostile environment that gives a women employee the right to quit and hold the employer liable.

true

The Americans with Disabilities Act applies to employers with:

15 or more employees

The Americans with Disabilities Act was passed in:

1990

Under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, all companies with federal contracts of ____ have a duty to ensure the disabled an opportunity in the workplace by providing reasonable accommodations.

2,500+

Which is not an officially recognized racial group under Title VII:

Arab

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act does not apply to which of the following:

Business Relationships or selection of independent contractors

If Joe, an African-American employer with light skin, discriminates against Omar, an African- American employee with dark skin, Omar will most likely file a discrimination claim based on:

Color

If an investigation of a discrimination charge is not settled by the EEOC working with the employer and complaining employee, to carry the case further, the:

EEOC issues a "right-to-sue" letter giving the employee the right to sue the employer

In Lewis v. Heartland Inns of America, L.L.C., where Lewis sued for violation of her Title VII rights, contending that she was fired for not conforming to sex stereotypes and in retaliation for opposing discriminatory practices, the appeals court held that:

Heartland's proffered reason for Lewis's termination was pretextual and the district court's ruling for Heartland should be reversed

The group that brings the most discrimination claims based on national origin is:

Hispanics

An employer may legally provide differential treatment to its employees based on:

Merit, seniority, business necessity

Title VII restricts discrimination based on:

National Origin

Which is not a protected class under Title VII:

Political Affiliation, sexual orientation

Under the Equal Pay Act, pay differentials on the basis of sex are eliminated by:

Raising the wages received by women

If workers are punished for participating in an official proceeding, such as filing an employment discrimination complaint or giving testimony in a discrimination investigation, they would have grounds for suit based on:

Retaliation

A person protected by Title VII applies for a job and is rejected. To prove a prima facie case of discrimination which of the following points need not be established?

The person remained unemployed

If an employee makes a prima facie case, but the employer gives a good business reason for the action involved, then it may be necessary for the jury to review the entire situation to understand if discrimination dominated the employment decision.

True

If an employer offers a defense to a prima facie case of discrimination, the plaintiff must then prove that the defense is only a pretext.

True

The common law permits employers to hire and fire, within contractual limits, at-will.

True

Under Title VII, officially recognized racial classes include:

Whites, native americans, hispanics

San Francisco's civil rights law that prohibits employment discrimination based on height or weight is an example of:

a city's extension of discrimination coverage beyond Title VII

Intersectional discrimination refers to the claim that:

a person suffered discrimination because of race and religion

In McDonnell-Douglas Corp. v. Green, the Supreme Court established a four-part test that a plaintiff must meet to establish:

a prima facie case of employment discrimination

A deliberate effort by an employer to remedy discriminatory practices in the hiring, training, and promotion of protected class members is called:

affirmative action

In U.S. v. Paradise, involving the hiring of black troopers by the Alabama highway patrol, the Supreme Court:

affirmed a hiring goal on promotions, as long as qualified black candidates were available

Because of past racial discrimination, senior employees at a plant are all white. The junior workers are racially mixed. A reduction in business forces the firm to fire half its workers. To protect the racial composition of the workers, the company will lay off white older workers. This policy is likely to be viewed by the courts as:

an illegal violation of a bona fide seniority system

Employers who do $50,000 or more of business with the federal government are required to study their workforce to determine if the mix of employees in job categories by sex and by race are reflective of the relevant hiring pools the employers draw from. This is called:

an underutilization analysis

The pay that an employee would have earned from the date the discrimination began or the difference between the pay received and what should have been received is known as:

back pay

Executive Order 11246 requires all:

businesses with federal contracts totaling $10,000 a year to take affirmative action

Executive Order 11246 was written:

by the President to require affirmative action programs of government contractors

The rules of affirmative action often require employers to:

conduct a work-force analysis for each job in an organization and take corrective action if certain protected groups are underutilized in any job category and make efforts to hire more women

If a person quits their employment because of sexual or racial harassment, it is called:

constructive discharge

In Pennsylvania State Police v. Suders the Supreme Court noted that in a case where harassment in the workplace is "so intolerable as to cause a resignation":

constructive discharge is the same as being fired for an illegal reason

In relation to the term "sex discrimination:"

courts have played a major role in defining the term

Fred and Vinny work at Leo's Used Car Lot. Fred dislikes Vinny, makes insults about Vinny's Iranian heritage, and treats him badly. Leo has heard the insults but does not reprimand Fred because Leo thinks Fred is right. Leo's actions are:

discriminatory under Title VII

____ involve employment practices that appear to be neutral on their face but in fact have a disproportionately adverse impact on an employee or group of employees who are members of a protected class.

disparate impact cases

If an employer uses a decision rule that causes discrimination in some aspect of employment based on protected class status, but the discrimination was unintentional, the discrimination is called:

disparate impact, which is illegal

Which is not one of the parts of the McDonnell-Douglas test that a plaintiff must establish to carry forward a claim of hiring discrimination against an employer:

employer had a record of discriminatory behavior

An affirmative action program is an effort by:

employers to remedy discriminatory employment practices that produced imbalanced workforces

Under federal law, if a person wishes to file a discrimination charge they must:

file the charges within 180 days, can be extended to 300 days

Recently, court-ordered affirmative action programs:

have become less common than voluntary affirmative action programs

Recently, voluntary affirmative action programs:

have become more common than court-ordered affirmative action programs

An employee who works at a grocery store for many years as a checkout clerk becomes unable to operate the cash register because of pain in her fingers that has developed from pushing keys on the cash register for so long. Unqualified for any other job at the store, she is dismissed and sues for disability discrimination. Most likely she will:

have the suit dismissed as she is not disabled for other employment

A black and a white employee committed the same offense. The black employee was disciplined but not fired, the white employee was fired. The Supreme Court held that this treatment was:

improper reverse discrimination, which violates Title VII

In bringing a suit charging an employer with a violation of Title VII, the courts recognize what as the theory of the law?

individual instances of disparate treatment or unintentional discrimination and neutral rules that have a disparate impact and are not justified by business necessity and neutral rules that perpetuate past discrimination

Disparate treatment (under Title VII) refers to:

intentional discrimination and illegally motivated employment decisions

Charles owns a club whose patrons are mostly African-American. He hires only African- Americans to serve drinks and food. Li (Asian-American) applies to work. He is qualified but is turned down. If Charles were to argue that the reason he denied Li the job is because being African- American is a bona fide occupational qualification, a court would find that Charles:

is wrong; he has illegally discriminated

A plaintiff claims age discrimination. At trial there is a split in the testimony. The plaintiff and a couple other workers give evidence of discrimination. The defendant has employees who testify that there was no discrimination and that the plaintiff was incompetent. In such instances:

it is up to the jury to decide if the plaintiff has presented enough evidence to show discrimination

Besides regular private employers, Title VII applies to which of the following?

labor unions and employment agencies and government agencies, law firms, more than 15 employees

In general, employment discrimination laws in Europe and Japan, compared to those in the U.S., are:

less protective of women and minorities

Individual states and cities:

may have civil rights acts that protect additional classes of employees not covered by Title VII

Employers may legally see to it that more minorities or women are hired without committing reverse discrimination if:

minorities or women are underrepresented in a certain job category

Disparate impact discrimination cases are ____ than disparate treatment cases.

more complex and less common

To not violate Title VII's prohibition of discrimination based on religion, an employer may have to make changes in the way her business is organized to meet religious requirements of employees. Employers are required to incur:

no more than minimal expenses to accommodate an employee's religious requirements

The Equal Pay Act:

prohibits pay discrimination on the basis of sex

Which of the following is NOT an issue in a disparate impact discrimination case:

proof of intent to discriminate

Where there is a promise of a reward, such as promotion or pay raise, for providing sexual favors being demanded is called:

quid pro quo

Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act's prohibition of discrimination based on religion, an employer is:

required to provide reasonable accommodation for an employee's religious practices

If a plaintiff establishes a prima facie case of employer discrimination, what happens?

the burden of proof shifts to the employer, the defendant must offer non-discriminatory reasons

Which of the following is one of the most common claims of religious discrimination in the workplace:

the employer will not allow the employee to take time off work to attend religious services

In Burlington Industries v. Ellerth, concerning the liability of a firm for discrimination that occurs in the workplace when a hostile environment is created by a supervisor, the Supreme Court held that:

the firm may be vicariously liable even if the employee suffered no adverse job consequences

In Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, a case concerning male-on-male sexual harassment, the Supreme Court held that:

the law restricts same-sex harassment

One of the main purposes of an affirmative action program is:

to allow an employer to correct for underrepresentation

Japan's first sexual harassment case:

was not decided until 1992 and resulted in a relatively small award

The Supreme Court's ruling in McDonald v. Santa Fe Trail Transportation, where an African- American employee and a white employee had stolen property from their employer and the African- American employee was reprimanded but allowed to keep his job while the white employee was fired, showed that:

whites are protected under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act

Which of the following situations is most likely to have violated Title VII:

woman is not hired at an auto parts store because women know nothing about auto parts