BUSINESS LAW

Business Law

Business Law

Introduction

The focus of this case study shows how an employee would take a discrimination complaint against his or her employer. It is a story about a John. Who is an employee in a private sector organization. The process of his case will be explored from where one would begin with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and proceeds through the civil litigation process from the state level up to the United States Supreme Court. In the examination of this scenario, it becomes necessary to define two key terms: discrimination and civil litigation.

Discrimination may be defined as the biased or prejudicial outlook, act, or action of an individual or group towards another person or group. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was specifically written to provide relief from discrimination in a number of areas, but specific to this case study is the area of employment law, which is detailed in Title VII of the Act. (Overview of the Litigation Process: http://www.cobar.org/index.cfm/ID/226/subID/1345/CITP/Overview-of-the-Litigation-Process/)

The Act created the legal basis for non-discrimination in service, housing, education, community accommodations and federally assisted plans. John states that civil litigation is the process that will be used if no other arrangement is agreed upon, for all sorts of asserted wrongs. John further states that when one thinks of the term "lawsuit", this is the process that is being referred.

The Process

According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, John must ask himself a series of questions prior to filing a charge of employment discrimination. As a general rule for John in the private sector, the answer to whom can file a charge of discrimination would be any individual who believes that John's employment rights have been violated may file a charge of discrimination with EEOC.

The primary purpose of the EEOC is to provide employees and prospective employees with a legal recourse to ensure fair and equal consideration with respect to employment and termination. Among other things, the law prohibits employers from basing the hiring or firing of an individual on factors such as race, age, religion, national origin, color or sex. When an individual feels that his rights under Title VII have been violated, he may file a claim against the company. The following paragraphs will outline the claims process of the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission and also the civil litigation process from the State level to the Supreme Court.

The first step in the claims process within the EEOC begins with the employee filing a claim through a local agency which handles employment discrimination claims on behalf of the EEOC. (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC): http://www.eeoc.gov/) "These agencies may contract with the EEOC to be what is called a "706" agency (named for section 706 of the act). These agencies receive and process claims on discrimination for the EEOC in addition to carrying on their own state business" (Bennett-Alexander & Hartman, 2001, p. 83). The claimant may also file a claim directly with the EEOC, however if there is a 706 agency in the area, the EEOC ...