In this individual research paper you are required to write a five- to seven-pag

Question

In this individual research paper you are required to write a five- to seven-page research paper on a human resource management "hot topic." You may select the "hot topic", which must be relevant to the course. Submit your paper through TurnltIn in blackboard. This individual assignment will be worth 150 points in the overall grade for the course. See the grading rubrics for the individual research paper below. Do not count the cover page in the total page count. All papers will be typed, spell-checked, grammar-checked, submitted double- spaced, and prepared with references in proper academic format, using the APA style. There are some excellent Web sites with great examples of how to use proper APA formatting. One such site is:

Explanation / Answer

Employment Discrimination and Harassment

            Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects against employment discrimination based on “race, color, religion, sex, or national origin” (Moran, 2014, p. 164). This helps ensure fair treatment to all workers. To ensure the safety of all workers, Title VII also protects against harassment, which includes quid pro quo harassment, hostile environment harassment, religious harassment, and racial harassment.

Quid Pro Quo Harassment

Quid pro quo sexual harassment, also known as vicarious liability, is employment or employment benefits are given by a supervisor in exchange for unwanted sexual favors. There are six requirements for it to be considered sexual harassment. First, the victim must be a member of a protected class. Second, the complaint must be gender related. Third, the victim must not have consented to the sexual advances or participated in the hostile work environment in the past. Fourth, the harassment must be based on sex. Fifth, the harassment must have a damaging effect on the victim’s job. Finally, the harassment must have happened during the scope of the victim’s employment (Moran, 2014). An example of this would be a supervisor telling his subordinate “If you don’t sleep with me, I will fire you.” Since the supervisor is threatening the loss of employment for sexual favors, it is quid pro quo sexual harassment.

Hostile Environment Harassment

Hostile environment harassment is when one employee frequently makes unwanted sexual comments, advancements, or anything similar to another employee. This can occur in both a verbal and physical form, such as sexual jokes, unwanted touching, or displaying of offensive material (Miller, 2014). The same six requirements that are needed for quid pro quo harassment must be met for hostile environment harassment. An example of hostile environment harassment would be one employee frequently asking another employee on a date.

Religious Harassment

Religious harassment is when an employee frequently receives unwelcome comments or behavior regarding their religion creating a hostile work environment (Williams & Media, n.d.). An example of religious harassment is an employee making multiple crude jokes about the Jews every day to a Jewish employee.

Racial Harassment

            Racial harassment is when an employee frequently receives unwelcome comments or behavior regarding their race, creating a hostile work environment. Racial harassment can be from a supervisor, co-worker, or the organization. The victim must notify their employer of the harassment unless it was from the employer. If it was not the employer who was harassing, the employer must take corrective actions or be held liable (Moran, 2014). An example of racial harassment is one employee frequently saying racial slurs to an African American employee.

Sexual Harassment, Gender Discrimination, and Sexual Orientation Discrimination

            There are two forms of sexual harassment. First is quid pro quo sexual harassment, which is when a supervisor demands sexual favors for employment or employment benefits. The second form of sexual harassment is hostile work environment harassment, which is when an employee frequently makes unwanted sexual comments, advancements, or anything similar to another employee (Moran, 2014). All six requirements must be met in order for the claim to be considered sexual harassment.

            Gender discrimination differs from sexual harassment. Gender discrimination “occurs when individuals of one gender are favored in employment decisions over the other gender” (Moran, 2014, p. 243). This can happen to both men and women. Gender harassment is non-sexual in nature, but rather is making offensive remarks about a person’s gender frequently enough to create a hostile work environment. Gender harassment can happen with people of the opposite sex and persons of the same sex (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission [U.S. EEOC], n.d.).

            Sexual orientation discrimination is the unfair treatment of someone solely based on their sexual orientation. Unlike sexual harassment and gender discrimination, sexual orientation discrimination is not protected under Title VII. However, there are state and local laws that prohibit it (Moran, 2014).

GINA Protection

            The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA) is an act that prohibits discrimination based on genetic information for health insurance and employment for employers with 15 or more employees. GINA also covers family member’s medical history (U.S. EEOC, 2008). Since GINA is primarily concentrated on protecting people who may be discriminated against for increased risk of getting a medical condition in the future, it would protect a person whose mother died of breast cancer from employment discrimination.

Hostile Environment and Quid Pro Quo Behaviors

            An example of behavior that could be found to be both a hostile work environment and quid pro quo would be an employer frequently making sexual advancements towards an employee creating a hostile work environment. Then later the employer gets fed up being continually denied, so he fires the employee. Since the advancements were frequent and severe, the employer created a hostile work environment and since the employee turn down the advancements and was subsequently fired for it, it is also quid pro quo harassment.

Importance of Policies against Harassment

            The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) requires employers to prevent harassment be for it starts. A pivotal way to prevent harassment is the creation of a valid written policy against all forms of harassment and how to report harassment if it is witnessed. Having and disseminating a policy against harassment will cover the federal obligation and may prevent the employer from being found liable (Schickman, n.d.).

Gender and Serving Customers

            Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, an employer with 15 or more employees for at least 20 weeks a year may not require that only females serve female customers and only males serve male customers. Title VII prevents an employer from gender discrimination in any way unless they can establish a bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ) (Moran, 2014). An example of BFOQ would be a bathroom attendant. Since they stand in the bathroom to hand paper towels and keep the bathroom tidy while in use, an employer can establish BFOQ.

Number of Employees

            In order to be subject to the Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the GINA, and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) all private employers, state and local governments and education institutions must employ 15 or more individuals for 20 weeks or more per year (U.S. EEOC, 2009). However, the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) only require a minimum of 4 employees (Moran, 2014).

Importance of Thorough Policies

            I believe it would be in our company’s best interest to update our anti-harassment policy to include a religious, sexual orientation and racial anti-harassment policy. This will not only let our employees have better unstinting of what is considered unacceptable behavior at our company, but it will also warn them of the consequence if they decide to break it. Having an anti-harassment policy that covers everything can also protect our company from being held liable for any future harassment claims by adhering to the EEOC’s requirement of harassment prevention.

New Legislation

Name and Resolution Number of Bill

I have chosen the H.R. 5159 Schedules That Work Act to discuss here.

Create or Amend

            Currently, the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) has no regulations for scheduling of employees. This allows an employer the freedom to change an employee's scheduled hours without giving prior notification (U.S. Department of Labor, n.d.). Therefore, the Schedules That Work Act would not be amending, but rather creating new law.

Change in Employment Law

            If the Schedules That Work Act passes, it will provide federal guidelines for making sure that employers offer fair and reliable schedules for their employees. It will give employees the right to ask for schedules that fit their personal and professional needs while making it illegal for an employer to punish them for their requests. If passes it will put stricter requirements for reporting pay, call-in pay, and split-shift pay. The Schedules That Work Act will also require employers to provide clear expectations about hours and scheduling and require employers to give advance notice of any changes (“H.R.5159,” 2014).

Will it be Successful?

            I completely agree with this bill and if I were a member of Congress, I would vote for it. I believe that this bill will give stronger protection to workers while eliminating some of the stress of place on employees with erratic schedules. I have been at jobs that have changed my schedule without prior notification and know how stressful it can be. I have also worked at places that would constantly schedule a closing shift the day before an opening shift, leaving me with only 7 hours to get home, sleep, and come back. That not only puts undue stress on the body, but also the mind. If the Schedules That Work Act passes, it will alleviate some of the added stress and create happier workers who work harder.

Conclusion

            There are many laws that protect employees and employers. Knowing what they are and when to apply them can save time, stress, and money. Since employment law is ever changing, it is good to stay informed. Having an understanding of what discrimination is and how to prevent it is an important faceted of human resources.

References

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Swissport Fueling, Inc., 10-CV-2101 (D. Az., 2013).

Miller, B. (2014, September 3). Sexual Harassment in the Workplace: Quid Pro Quo Versus Hostile Work Environment

Moran, J. (2014). Employment law: New challenges in the business environment (6th ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc., et al., No. 96-568 (5th Cir., 1998)

Schickman, M. (n.d.). Sexual Harassment: The Employers Role in Prevention.

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