Equal Employment Opportunity and Human Resources Management Ch. 3

Civil Rights Act of 1991

Allows employees who can prove they were intentionally discriminated against to seek compensatory monetary damages.

Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972

Amends the Civil Right Act of 1964 to include state and local governments and public and private educational institutions and strengthened the enforcement powers of the EEOC by allowing the agency to sue employers in court

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Bars employment discrimination in all HR activities, including hiring, training, promotion, transfers, pay, employee benefits, and other conditions of employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin

Are the accommodations required for the disabled individual reasonable or would they constitute an undue hardship?

A job applicant for a word processing job has a physical disability in which he needs a wheel chair and he is severely limited in terms of use of his arms. Based on the Americans with Disabilities Act, which issues would you need to consider in evaluating this applicant?

Guidance on how to respond to complaints of discrimination.

A package delivery company was recently sued by a group of job applicants who claimed that the company engaged in discriminatory hiring practices. The courts ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and ordered the company to develop and implement mandatory training for all managers and employees as part of a resolution to prevent this issue from occurring again in the future. The CEO of the company has called a meeting with senior management to discuss the issue of the mandatory training program. As the head of HR, what would you say about what the anti-discrimination training program should cover in terms of topics and content?

Create a comprehensive EEO policy.

A public relations firm wants to ensure that it does not have any issues with lawsuits over violations of any discrimination laws in the future. Senior management has asked the vice president of HR to formulate an action plan for addressing this situation. Based on this, what should the vice president of HR include in her plan?

Glass Ceiling Act of 1991

Created the Glass Ceiling Commission

Increase recruiting efforts focused specifically on qualified hispanic candidates

If a hotel and resort chain has 10% managers who are Hispanic from a local labor market that has 20% qualified Hispanics, then the appropriate action for the company to take is to

Equal Pay Act of 1963

Makes it illegal to discriminate against people in terms of the pay, employee benefits, and pension they earn based on their gender when they do equal work

The restaurant can hire Asian employees for the restaurant given that being Asian is a BFOQ in relation to the restaurant's business objectives and philosophy.

Management at a Chinese restaurant that serves authentic Chinese food and wants to provide its customers with a traditional overall dining experience are concerned that hiring Asian employees as hosts and servers may constitute racial discrimination. If you were the head of HR at this business, what would you say to management about this issue?

Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967

Prohibits specific employers from discriminating against employees and applicants age 40 or older in any employment area

Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (2009)

States that the 180-day statute of limitations for filing an equal-pay lawsuit with the EEOC resets with each new discriminatory paycheck an employee receives

Set goals to maintain the current levels of female and minority senior executives.

The HR department at a consumer electronics manufacturing firm used its HR information system to conduct a workforce utilization analysis for senior executive positions in the company. This analysis revealed that females make up 40% of the company's senior executives and that minorities make up 50% of the company's senior executives. This compares with 20% availability for females and 30% availability for minorities in the relevant external labor market. Based on this data, what action should HR take in this situation?

Reverse discrimination

The affirmative action program at a global conglomerate involved showing a preference for hiring and promoting members of unprotected classes who were underrepresented in the company. This resulted in many highly qualified, majority group members (white males) being passed over for job offers and promotions. This situation could put the company at risk of lawsuits based on:

Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures

The president and founder of a high-tech start-up firm contacted the vice president of HR at the company because she wanted to better understand federal employment laws and their implications for hiring at the firm. Which resource should the vice president of HR recommend to the president?

Involve people in creating the program who are different from you.

The talent development division at an insurance company is in the process of developing an "Embracing Diversity and Leveraging Employee Differences" workshop for all managers and employees. One module in the workshop is devoted to specific personal practices or strategies that managers and individual contributors can put into practice to see, understand, and value diversity. If you were the instructional designer for this workshop, which specific strategies would you include in the program?