Employment Discrimination

Employment Discrimination

Employment Discrimination:

Introduction:

Being the inhabitants if a global village, we can now experience things and phenomenon that never existed before, or were close to being non-existent. There are a number of concepts that were unheard of before, but now they are a commonplace and nobody event ponders upon the evolution and sequence of events that have caused things to be the way they are today.

Globalization is one of the phenomenon that have bought drastic and irreversible changes in the social structures of many societies around the globe. Today, we see more people migrating to other places and settling over there, mainly in search of jobs. With the advances in information and technology, competition has also increased manifolds, and it is not uncommon to see people moving to other places to find a source of income, or in some cases, in search of a better lifestyle and opportunities.

On one hand, this migration has many positive attributes, like allowing people to experience different cultures and societies. It also allows an individual to make best use of his capabilities and move to the area where his talent is accepted and appreciated, instead of compromising on whatever the native country has to offer.

However, on the other hand, many sociological issues have also risen, brining changes in the social structure of the society. With the increase in cultural diversity, ethnocentrism, favoritism and discrimination have also gained pace; the issues being most visible at the work place. As mentioned earlier, majority of people move to other areas in search of better job opportunities, these differences, combined with competition and discrimination are more visible at work places than in any other social institution.

Body:

Legislation:

Each and every issue, let it be social, political or economic, as a legal solution to it along with some legal restriction, presented in the form of laws and legislation. In case of employment discrimination, there are employment discrimination laws that provide protection to the employees against discrimination. This discrimination could be on the basis of age, race, gender, nationality, disability or religion. There are other factors too, that can be the cause of discrimination, with these being the main and most observed ones.

Federal and state statues are normally responsible for making these laws in order to provide protection to the citizens against employment discrimination. These laws have defined numerous work related practices as discriminatory and biased, including promotion, transfer, recalling, laying off workers and compensation. This also includes assigning and classification of employees; dispensing fringe benefits; hiring and/or firing employees; recruitment of workers and posting job openings; testing; training and apprenticeship programs; retaliation; payment, retirement and disability leaves; and different types of harassment.

Following is the list of laws, presented to protect employees from discrimination and prejudice:

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964: The law proscribes discrimination on the basis of color, gender, nationality, pregnancy, race and religion. This also includes including sexual harassment: one of the most commonly observed form of persecution these days.

The Civil Rights Act of 1991: The law aims ...