Employee Discrimination Case Study

Introduction

In the late spring I lost my mother. While it is hard to believe she’s gone; she live a fairly good and long life (97 ½ years). She was notorious for telling young folk how fortunate they were to have laws in place that assured they were given a fair chance to education and employment.

There were periods in her life when she found it hard to find desirable employment. My mother was black, handicapped and a Seventh Day Adventist. Because of the era she grew up in it wasn’t uncommon for people to be discriminated against because of their race; it made it even harder for her because her religion forbade her to work from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset and she walked with a limp.

We now have laws in place that prevent an employer

She suffered from a leg length discrepancy of about 4 inches. She told me there had been times when she would interview for a position and be told she couldn’t perform the job, so most of her life she worked as a maid. The EEOC doesn’t make a employer hire workers with handicaps; it just makes sure they are not excluded because of them, they must be given a fair chance.

When the employer does discriminate that’s when the EEOC steps in to settle the issues. It can be a very costly lesson. Employee’s lawsuit can be very pricey and time consuming. According to Enterprise Florida there were 99,922 EEOC charges file in 2010. (cersnow.com, 2015) The average cost of these suit was 250, 000. (cersnow.com, 2012) It’s not the EEOC goal to beat up on employers they would prefer things be settled on the lowest level and as quickly as possible .

In Memphis, Tennessee a jiffy lube franchise call a man in for an interview for a lube tech position, but refuse to hire him once the manager found out he was deaf. He was told didn’t have a position for someone with his type of handicap. (Federal Information & News Dispatch, 2012) The EEOC first sought a voluntary settlement but the company didn’t budge so the case was taken to court and the company

Most stores and businesses in the Myrtle Beach, S.C. wanted employees to work on Saturday. I realize now I made it easy not to hire me because I stated my religious preference and that I couldn’t work on the Sabbath. Had the EEO law been in effect then the task would have been a lot easier. The law now not only prevents employers from not hiring because of religion it prevents them from forces you to perform tasks that are against your beliefs.

In 2005 the EEOC sued UPS for terminating two employees for not shaving their beards and not adhering to its uniform policy. The members were Islamic and explained prior to their termination that they grew their beards as part of their religion. (Bogage, 2005)

In 2009 a young lady in my unit filed charges against our commander because she was told she couldn’t wear her hajib, once there base EEO stepped in as a mediator. She was able to wear her hajib except during certain exercises wear it would prove