Law

There are various laws which are put in place to regulate discrimination in the work place and they include Title seven of the civil rights Act of 1964, equal pay Act of 1963, age discrimination in employment act of 1967, title 1 and title 5 of the Americans with disabilities Act of 1990, sections 505 and 501 of the rehabilitation Act of 1973, and civil rights Act of 1991. These laws act by protecting the citizens against many types of discrimination.

Title seven of the civil rights Act which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, faith, sex, or national origin. Equal pay Act of 1963 protects men and women who are doing equal job in the same company from pay discrimination based on their sex it ensures that they are paid equal regardless of their gender. Title 1 and Title 5 of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 protects qualified individuals with disabilities from discrimination based on their disabilities (Doss, para 4). This law applies in the private sector, state, and local government. Sections 501 and 505 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 condemns discrimination against qualified persons with disabilities who are employed in the federal government, civil rights Act of 1991 which provides monetary compensation in cases of intentional employment discrimination. Finally, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1976 protects employees who are 40 years old and above (David, para 5).

In the United States, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ensures that all the above federal laws are obeyed by the employers (Jose, para 3). It also provides supervision and harmonization of all federal equal employment opportunity regulations, actions and policies. In cases of discriminations in the work place, an employee can file a charge with the EEOC and the employer gets notified that a charge against him has been filed (The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, para 5). After this point, there are various ways in which it may be handled and this may include (if the evidence provided shows that the law was violated), priority investigation may be assigned, and if the evidence provided is not strong enough then follow up investigation may be carried out to asses if the law was violated. EEOC can also request to settle the charge at any stage of investigation if the parties involved have accepted and if this does not succeed, investigations are carried on (Doss, para 7).

While investigating a charge, EEOC may prepare written application for information, interrogate people involved, check the documents, and also to go to the area where the discrimination occurred. After the completion of the investigation, the EEOC ensures that the information found is discussed with the warring parties as required by the law. EEOC provides an option of mediation only if the charging party and the employer accept it. If mediation fails, the charge is taken back for investigation (The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, para 5). The charge can also be dismissed at any level if the investigations does not prove violation of law, or it can be dismissed at the time of filing if the first information provided does not provide a strong evidence. When the charge is rejected, the charging party is allowed 90 days so that he can file a lawsuit against himself (David, para 5).

If the evidence found shows that discrimination occurred, both the charging party and the employer are informed and EEOC will then try reconciliation with the employer to create a way of avoiding the problem in the future. If the reconciliation and mediation have succeeded, then the charge does not proceed to the court but if they fail or the agreement is not respected, the charge then proceeds to the courts. If EEOC has failed to conciliate the case, it will then decide whether to file a suit in federal court. If the case is not filed in the federal court, it will inform the charging party of closure of the charge giving him or her 90 days to file a suit on his behalf. Cases of discrimination against state or local government are handled by the department of justice (Jose, 2009).

There are various ethical implications which are involved in job discrimination. Ethical problems normally arise in many areas. For example, in business, it can arise at human resource issue, employee safety issues, conflicts of interest, customer confidence, and use of corporate resources. The success of any organization depends on the human resource and the laws dictate that at the point of hiring, the organization should be ethical. There should not be any discrimination to some groups of people based on their race, color, or religion among other things. This can affect the performance of the discriminated group and the organization might not achieve its goals.

An American or an American controlled employer operating abroad who have American employees working in their organization is liable to American employment laws. The laws which such a company should abide by include title 7 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, an Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, and the American with Disabilities Act of 1990. Title 7 of the Civil rights Act of 1964 initially lacked extraterritorial application but in 1991, section 109 of the Act was enacted spreading the application of Title 7 beyond the US territory in some conditions to US citizens working in foreign countries. Examples of the conditions under which this law applies includes US citizens employed abroad in US owned firms, US citizens employed abroad in non US firms which are under the control of US firms. The control of such a firm is considered by interrelation of operations, common management, centralized control of labor relations, and common ownership or financial control of the employer and the non US Corporation. To the non US citizens, the law does not apply whether the firm is owned by the US or even controlled by a US firm (The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, para 9). Age Discrimination Employment Act has limited application abroad. It applies in situations where US citizens are working abroad for a US firm, US citizens working abroad in firms controlled by the US, and does not extend outside the US to non US firms, or to firms controlled by non US companies. Americans with Disabilities Act have limited application outside the US just like the above other laws i.e. US citizens working abroad in US owned firms or firms controlled by the US only.