Friday, September 20, 2013

Sorting Out What Anti-Discrimination Laws Are And What They Mean

By Gregory Covey


Anti-discrimination laws help businesses increase attendance and productivity by creating an environment that people feel safe in. It seems so simple at times, but just treating people fairly no matter how different they may be from us can help you stay successful. Instead of judging someone based on their age, religion, race, color, disability, national origin or any other differences they may have we should judge them only based on their actual work performance.

We will take a look at age discrimination first and look at ways to help prevent it from being a part of our workplace environment. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act, known also as ADEA, protects anyone forty or more years old. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act was designed to discourage employers from unfairly treating older employees in the following employment conditions; training opportunities, work assignments, layoffs/terminations, offered benefits, amount of pay, or whether or not they are hired.

When we take a look at racial discrimination it can become a little more complicated when we try to define it specifically. As an example, it is possible to discriminate against someone that is of one race but married to someone of a different race. It is also possible to discriminate against someone for having an affiliation to an organization that generally caters to a certain race. Finally it is possible to have discriminatory practices by establishing unnecessary work rules that would have a negative impact on certain races of people.

The color of someone's skin is also protected by anti-discrimination laws. Even if someone is of the same color skin as someone else, it can still be considered discrimination. Unfortunately, the law doesn't clearly spell out what color discrimination is only that it is based on the darkness or lightness of an individual's skin.

The same rules apply to religion. Whether a person is actually of a certain religion or not they can still be discriminated against if the person discriminating against them believes they are of that religion. They may have been seen going into or coming out of a certain religious organization and because of that someone began taking negative action against them. It can be that simple.

An individual that is unfairly treated because of the country or area they are from, their ethnicity, or if they have an accent, is referred to as national origin discrimination. Identical to the other forms of discrimination, whether they are actually from that country or area isn't important. It matters only that someone believes they are from that country.

The best way to protect your company from anti-discrimination laws is to insure your employees receive ongoing training from the moment they are hired. This should include an employee handbook, new hire orientation, and annual training thereafter. This training should not be taken lightly. In fact, it should include a well written lesson plan and some type of test proving they understand what they were taught. The employee handbook does not have to be complicated or long winded. It should provide the necessary information on your discrimination policy and the consequences if they do not follow it. In all cases make sure you document all training and have them sign for the employee handbook.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment