Supervisory responsibilities vary among the multitude of available jobs in the market; however, there are certain functions that exist in all jobs. Supervisors must decide when to hire, fire, promote, discipline, or transfer an employee. For example, it is fairly simple to identify a Chief Probation Officer with a defined title and responsibility; however, enthusiastic employees working toward professional development may be selected to handle progressively responsible tasks within an organization. Many business managers may choose to delegate tasks to those employees, thereby graying the structured lines of responsibility. As those lines diminish, organizations become vulnerable to violation of employee civil rights. In review of the Supreme Court case of Vance v. Ball State (2013), we examine Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and whether employers may be vicariously liable for subordinate actions when the employer is not directly involved in the creation of a hostile work environment. We will review the case’s journey to the Supreme Court, analyze the Court’s rationale in deciding that Ball State University was not vicariously liable for Vance’s alleged hostile work environment, and discuss the impact of that decision on human resource managers.
In 2006, Maetta Vance filed a lawsuit against Ball State University in the United States District Court of the Southern District of Indiana. Ms. Vance, an African-American woman, claimed that Ball State University was responsible for a coworker’s creation of a hostile work environment. Ms. Vance worked for Ball State University as a catering assistant and served that department since 1989. She was promoted in 1991, from substitute server to part-time catering assistant, and aga...
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...o be held vicariously liable. Finally, we discussed the implications that this ruling presents to human resource managers in identifying and training subordinates to progress into leadership roles and ensuring that continuous harassment training takes place to mitigate the risk of liability.
References
Brief of the Society for Human Resource Management and the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources as Amici Curiae, p. 20, Vance v. Ball State University, 570 U.S. ___ (2013).
Burlington Industries, Inc. v. Ellerth. 524 U. S. 742. (1998).
Civil Rights Act of 1964 § 7, 42 U.S.C. §2000e et seq (1964). Retrieved from Equal Employment Opportunity Commission website: http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/statutes/titlevii.cfm.
Far¬agher v. Boca Raton. 524 U. S. 775. (1998).
Vance v. Ball State University. Slip opinion. 570 U.S. ___. (2013).
One of the issues in the case EEOC v. Target Corp. is that the EEOC alleged that Target violated the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by engaging in race discrimination against African-American applicants who were interested in management positions. It is argued that Target did not give the opportunity to schedule an interview to plaintiffs, Kalisha White, Ralpheal Edgeston and Cherise Brown-Easley, because of racial discrimination. On the other hand, it argues that Target is in violation of the Act because the company failed to retain and present records that would determine if there was reason to believe that an unlawful practice had been committed.
Title VII under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was enacted on July 2nd, 1964 as a mitigation strategy to prohibit any form of discrimination on grounds of a person’s religion, sex, color, race or their national origin. The law was originally meant to solve the problem of discrimination witnessed during voter registration. It was also expected to solve discrimination present at workplaces and schools where there was widespread racial discrimination. However, the law has become an even more relevant tool and has seen to it that hiring and firing processes by many companies are adherent to it.
"Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964." ():-. Retrieved from http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/statutes/titlevii.cfm on Mar 17, 2014
Bennett-Alexander, Dawn D. & Hartman, Laura P. (2001). Employment Law for Business (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Primis Custom Publishing. Downloaded February 4, 2008 from the data base of http://www.eeoc.gov
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. (n.d.). The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Retrieved November 20, 2014, from http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/statutes/titlevii.cfm
This change is not so silent today. Roberts and Stratton show that, "quotas are based on an intentional misreading of Title VII and are strictly illegal under the 1964 Civil Rights Act." An explicit example of this intentional misreading, or abuse, of the Civil Rights Act is when a person is fired to fulfill a quota.
In today’s workplace, African Americans continue to be subjected to overt discrimination. This can take the form of ethnic jokes, racial slurs and exclusionary behaviors by Euro-American co-workers and managers. Even more disturbing is the verbal abuse, calculated mistreatment and even physical threats experienced by some African Americans while on the job. African Americans have also faced overt acts such as being reassigned to lower level projects, not receiving a promotion even though they were equally qualified and receiving less wages than other employees, even less qualified new hires. The discrimination can be so pervasive that African Americans feel uneasy and threatened, demotivated and disrespected, eventually feeling forced to leave to search for other employment.
Noe, Raymond A., et al. Human Resource Management: Gaining a Competitive Advantage. 7th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2010. Print.
Byars, L. L. (1997). Human Resource Management. Chicago, IL: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Mills, D. Q. (1994).
Knouse, S. B. (2005). The Future of Human Resource Management: 64 Leaders Explore the Critical HR Issues of Today and Tomorrow. 58(4), 1089-1092.
Reed, S. M. & Bogardus, A. M. (2012). PHR/SPHR Professional in human resources certification study guide. (4th ed.). Indianapolis, IN: John Wiley & Sons.
Reed, S. M., & Bogardus, A. M. (2012). PHR/SPHR: Professional in human resources certification study guide (4th ed.). Indianapolis, IN: Wiley Publishing, Inc. ISBN-13: 9781118289174
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employers from discriminating against applicants and employees because of their race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Religious Discrimination as part of the Civil Rights Act is the subject of this term paper.
Workplace harassment is unwelcome actions that are based on a person’s race, religion, color, and sex, and gender, country of origin, age, ethnicity or disability. The targets of the harassment are people who are usually perceived as “weaker” or “inferior” by the person who is harassing them. Companies and employers can also be guilty of workplace harassment if they utilize discriminatory practices against persons based on ethnicity, country of origin, religion, race, color, age, disability, or sex. These discriminatory practices have been illegal since the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Civil Rights Act of 1964), and have been amended to be more inclusive of other people who experience discrimination by the Civil Rights Act of 1991 (The Civil Rights Act of 1991), and most recently, President Obama’s signing of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 (Stolberg, 2009).
Work plays an important role in our daily life, it is considered much more huge part of our personal life. During our daily work we make many relationships throughout our career history. Sometimes these relationships become lasting, and sometimes employment discrimination might happen. This relationships that we thought it last could be cut off by the devastation of claims of discriminatory treatment. Discrimination in the workforce has been an issue since the first people of workers in United States in the present day and as well in the past. Some employees were subjected to a harsh working conditions, verbal abuse, denial of advancement,, and many other injustices. There was also the fact that certain employees were being treated differently than other employees.