Discrimination Laws
Identify a couple of the major discrimination laws.
How are these laws intended to protect employees?
Are these laws necessary and effective, or instead do they restrict the manager�s ability to properly
manage?
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Discrimination Laws
An organization that exists in a certain state or country ought to comply with some
laws. The type of laws may vary depending on the nature of the business being undertaken by
the organization. Therefore, there are various and diverse laws that govern the conduct of an
organization in the business industry or any other industry the organization may be involved in.
However, there are some laws that run through most of the organizations if not all. These laws
are referred to as Employment laws. Employment laws and some compliance laws govern the
conduct of an organization’s employees in the workplace. This paper is going to discuss some
employment laws know as discrimination laws.
To adequately elaborate the definition of discrimination laws. We need first fully to
comprehend the term discrimination. Discrimination in the context of employment, refers to the
act of treating an individual or group in a negative manner or less well than other individual
groups on the basis of their age, sex, skin color, religion, culture, race, nation of origin and
disability. Therefore, discrimination laws can be defined as laws that prohibit negative behavior
or acts towards other individuals or groups in the workplace on the basis of their gender, race,
color, religion, age national origin or disability.
Discrimination laws govern the conduct of an employee in the workplace (Portillo et al.,
2012). These laws also have their effect on a broad scope of Human Resource activities. The
activities involved include hiring, recruiting, compensation, promotions, health and safety,
labor relations and performance appraisal. Discrimination laws are put in place to assure that a
level work environment is set for all individuals that exist in a certain organization. Owing to
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the diverse nature of any organization’s employee, discrimination laws are necessary to ensure
that the different personal orientation of different people does not become a significant factor in
the bringing down of the overall performance of the organization.
Discriminations laws are quite many. However, this paper is going to focus on majorly
two major discrimination laws. One of the two major laws is the Title VII of the Civil Rights
Act of 1964 (Portillo et al., 2012). The provisions of this law dictate that no employment
discrimination whatsoever is going to be leveled at any individual or group according to the
basis of race, color, religion, national origin, and sex. This law clearly dictates the term on
which one is charged with employment discrimination. The provisions of this law set the
ground on which most organization managers will carry out their employment activities or
human resource activities.
The second major law is the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. This
discrimination law focuses more on the area of individuals with disabilities. The provisions of
this law dictate that no discrimination will be leveled on any qualified person with a physical or
mental disability. Most times, it is evident that qualified individuals with physical disabilities
are locked out of applying or even some major positions in organizations all over the world.
However, these discrimination laws clearly define the act of discriminating against individuals
or groups with disabilities is illegal and the perpetrator can be found guilty as charged in the
court of law.
In a working environment, it is unavoidable to find a diverse combination of individuals
with different traits. However, to ensure that the work environment is not affected by any
discrimination, the discrimination laws are put in place to target any affected individual. These
laws provide a fair working ground on which most people can perform better without the fear
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of feeling stigmatized or isolated in any way (Burkhauser et al., 2012). These laws, therefore,
accept the unique and different nature of every individual and strives to protect the personal
interests of all individuals working in a diverse setting of a work environment (Burkhauser et
al., 2012).
In an organization, a manager’s role is to ensure that all processes in the organization go
on swiftly without any hitch or hurdle. Therefore, it is necessary that a human resource
manager make sure that most of the discrimination laws are implemented and adhered to by the
employees of the organization. The significance of these laws is that it makes it possible for
different individuals to co-exist with one another and work together towards achieving the end
goal of the organization. Without such laws in place, managers would not have been able to
maintain peace and harmony in the workplace. Hence, it would be a regular practice to
experience a wave of violence leveled by one employee to another on the basis of
discrimination of any kind, day in day out.
The effectiveness of these laws can be witnessed from a large number of global
corporations and worldwide organizations that employ individuals from every corner of the
earth to work together in achieving organizational success in a global perspective. However,
there are some downfalls in these laws. One notable hindrance that is created by the
discrimination laws is that it does not give the manager a chance to manage an organization’s
resources effectively. For instance, a physically challenged employee may be performing at a
slower rate that other employees but still demands to be awarded the similar grade salary
(Neumark et al., 2015). It might cost the company a significant amount of resources in trying
to level up the physically challenged employee’s output to meet the standards expected of
employees.
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References
Burkhauser, R. V., Schmeiser, M. D., & Weathers, R. R. (2012). The importance of anti-
discrimination and workers’ compensation laws on the provision of workplace
accommodations following the onset of a disability. Industrial & Labor Relations
Review, 65(1), 161-180.
Harper, P., & French, B. (2014). Is it Safer Without You?: Analysing the Intersection between
Work Health and Safety and Anti-Discrimination Laws.
Larson, L. K. (2014). Employee Health–AIDS Discrimination (Vol. 10). Larson on
Employment Discrimination.
Neumark, D., Song, J., & Button, P. (2015). Does Protecting Older Workers from
Discrimination Make It Harder to Get Hired? Evidence from Disability Discrimination
Laws (No. w21379). National Bureau of Economic Research.
Portillo, J., & Block, W. E. (2012). Anti-discrimination laws: Undermining our rights. Journal
of business ethics, 109(2), 209-217.
