2.06.

03
Discrimination

Justified
o Discrimination arising from disability
Occurs when a disabled person is treated unfavorably because of
something connected with their disability and the treatment cannot be
justified
Not the same as direct discrimination
When a service provider treats someone less because of the
disability itself
When someone is treated less favorably because of something connected
with their disability
Ex:
Dismissing an employee for absences
o Dismissing an employee for disability-related absences that
go against the organizations attendance policy
Griffiths vs Secretary of state for work and pensions
Reasonable adjustments during redundancy process
o Employers fail to make reasonable adjustments
Employee suffered from disability that caused an
inability to attend meetings concerning their jobs
Giving negative verbal references or withdrawing job offers
o Former employees give bad reference because the
employee has multiple absences due to disability and the
prospective employer withdraws job offer because of the
reference
Both employers sow discrimination arising from
disability
o Unjustified
Direct
Most common form,
Unfair treatment of another person based of a specific protected
characteristic
Indirect
When a law or policy puts a person at a disadvantage
o A policy at school, work, community hits you harder
because of a characteristic
Harassment
Unwanted, offensive, humiliating and intimidating act directed at
someone because of age, disability, gender, race, sexual orientation
or religion

Gestures, spoken or written words, images, or jokes

Sexual harassment
Leave you degraded, humiliated, and offended
When someone violates your dignity and makes you feel inferior
Threats or promises that make you feel vulnerable
Victimization
Unfavorable treatment someone receives
o Reaction to a persons claim of discrimination
o Someone is supporting the claim
o Excluding someone from activities and eventually the
person leaves the job at his own will

2.06.02

Employee-Employer Relationships
o Right to privacy
Have a right to have privacy in the work place
Applies to employees personal possessions (handbags or
briefcases)
Having storage lockers accessible only be the employee
Private mail addressed only to the employee
During telephone conversations and voicemail messages
Limited rights in their e-mail messages and internet usage while on
the employers computer system
Employer cant conduct a credit/background check on an employee
or prospective employee unless they notify the employee in writing
and receive permission to
Right to be free from discrimination and harassment of all types
Right to a safe workplace (no dangerous conditions, toxic substances,
other potential safety hazards)
Right to fair wages for work performed
Right to be free from retaliation for filing a claim or complaint against the
employer
o Federal Regulations on Employment relationships
Title VII
Applies only if the employer has 15 or more employers
Prohibits employers from discriminating in the hiring process
based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin
Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)
Disability (physical or mental impairment) that substantially limits
one or more major life activities
Prohibit discrimination against a person (if it is a qualified
disability)

Person with disability cannot be discriminated based on their

disability if they can perform the essential functions w/ or w/
reasonable accommodation
Age Discrimination in Employment Act
Has to 40 years or older and a workplace with more than 20
employees
Prevents employers from giving preferential treatment to younger
workers to the detriment of older workers
Doesnt prevent an employer from favoring older employees over
younger employees
Fair Labor Standards Act
Gives regulation to the duration of work days and breaks an
employer must provide
Governs salary and overtime requirements set out by the federal
government
Family and Medical Leave Act
Employers must allow employees to take up to a 12-week leave of
absence for qualified medical purposes
To qualify for the leave, the employee must have worked for the
employer for 12 months and for 1,250 hours in the 12 months
preceding the leave
Preserves qualified employees positions for the duration of the
leave

2.06.04

Minimum wage and Overtime

o Federal law requires that most employees receive a wage of at least $7.25 per
hour
o Some states have the minimums set at a higher level
Youth Minimum wage
Allow employers to pay a lower wage to employees under 20
years of age
Called training wage or youth minimum wage
The law sets this lower minimum at $4.25 an hour
o Can only be paid for the first 90 days of employment
Employees who earn tips
An employee who regularly receives tips as part of their pay also
gets a minimum wage of $2.13 an hour
o Must regularly receive more than $30 per month in tips and
be allowed to keep all tips
o Combined tips-plus-wages must add up to at least $7.25 per
hour minimum

If it does not equal that minimum, the employer has

to pay the difference
Exemptions from Minimum Wage Requirements
Not entitled to overtime pay
o Administrative, professional, executive, and outside sales
employees
o Full-time college students, workers on farms, workers
employed by fishing enterprises, and other types
Overtime
Federal law requires employees who are not exempt receive
overtime pay for any time worked beyond forty hours in one
workweek
Rate of overtime pay is one and one-half times the regular rate of
pay
A workweek is defined as 168 hours or seven consecutive twentyfour hour periods
Employees eligible for overtime pay may not waive their right to
receive overtime pay
Exemptions from overtime requirements
If you learn less than $455 per week or $23,660 a year, then you
automatically are entitled to receive overtime pay
Employees who earn more are exempt from overtime requirements
if they are compensated on a salary (not an hourly one) and if their
job falls into one of the following categories
o Executive
Employees primary duties involve office or nonmanual work related to the management of the
employers operations, and employee has to
exercise discretion and independent judgment
o Learned Professional
Employees primary duties involve the performance
of work that requires advanced knowledge in a field
of science or learning
o Creative Professional
Employees primary duties involve invention,
imagination, originality, or talent in a field of
creative/artistic endeavor

Child Labor
o Minimum age standards for nonagricultural employment
14- minimum age for employment in specified occupations outside of
school for limited periods of time each day and each week
Their job cannot interfere with their schooling and conditions that
interfere with their health and well-being

o Ex:
No work before 7 a.m. or after 7 pm, except from
June 1 to Labor Day (work till 9)
No more than 3 hours a day on a school day
No more than 8 hours a day on a non-school day
o Exceptions: already graduated high school, has a child to
support and has had school attendance requirements waived
by appropriate state officer
o Cant be employed in hazardous jobs; such as
manufacturing, mining, riding on a motor vehicle, all work
requiring the use of ladders/scaffolding/their substitutes,
work performed in a boiler or engine room
16-basic minimum age for employment, may be employed for unlimited
hours in any occupation other than ones declared hazardous by the
Secretary of Labor
Has 17 HOs (Hazardous Occupation Orders) that specify the
occupations that are not permitted
o Include coal mining, manufacturing and storing of
explosives, using power-driven saws, power-driven bakery
machines
18- minimum age of employment in nonagricultural occupations declared
hazardous by the Secretary of Labor
o Penalties for Violations
Civil Money Penalty
Employers may be subject to a civil money penalty of up to
$11,000 for each employee who is subject of a child labor violation
Increased up to $50,000 if the violation causes the death or serious
injury of a minor
o Can be doubled when the violation is repeated
Hot Goods Injunctions
Hot Goods= goods tainted by oppressive child labor
No producer, manufacturer or dealer can ship or deliver for
shipment in commerce any goods produced in an establishment
that came from child labor
Injunction to Compel Compliance
Department of labor can seek injunctions against violators
Could result in sanctions against such person for contempt of court
Criminal Sanctions
A fine up to $10,000 in the case of a willful violation
If it happens again, fined with another $10,000 or imprisonment of
>6months
Collective Bargaining

o Negotiation process between a union and an employer to work out an agreement

that will govern the term and conditions of the workers employment
o National Labor Relations Act requires a duly elected union and employer to meet
and negotiate
Wages, hours, and other employment terms
Dont have to reach an agreement, but they have to bargain in good faith
o Employer Duty to Supply information
Employers have access to more information
National Labor Relations Board and the courts require employers to make
certain types of information available to the union during the collective
bargaining process
o Mandatory Bargaining Issues
Employers must bargain with the union over issues that are central to the
employment relationship (wages, hours, layoff procedures)
If employer refuses to bargain in one of the mandatory bargaining areas is
committing an unfair labor process
NLRB steps in to remedy the situation, the union can also take
certain actions against the employee, including a strike
2.06.01

Ethics
o Duties
Called deontology by philosophers
Focuses on the act and not its consequences
Heavy on obligation
Doing what you are supposed to do (because of law or because you agreed
a.k.a following an employers policy
Means that you will work with honesty and integrity
Ex:
Doing quality work
Good behavior
Being honest
Team player
Not out to get people so that you can get a higher position
Bad ethics
Employee theft
No fully complying with laws
Cutting corners to get a better profit
Walmart
o Faced charges of monopoly after making suppliers
dependent on them and forcing them to do self-defeating

practices (selling items below their cost so that they lose

money)
o Faced charges of predatory pricing- pricing products too
low to drive out competition
CitiBank
o Spend $50 million on a new private jet after taking $45
billion in taxpayer funds to stay afloat
o CEO lied to congress that he received compensation of one
million a year, when he actually got $11 million

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/85011/disability.p
df
http://eschooltoday.com/discrimination-and-prejudice/types-of-discrimination.html
http://employment.findlaw.com/employment-discrimination/employees-rights-101.html
http://employment.findlaw.com/wages-and-benefits/minimum-wage-and-overtime-basics.html
http://employment.findlaw.com/wages-and-benefits/exempt-employees-vs-nonexemptemployees.html
https://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/childlabor101.pdf
http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/collective-bargaining.html
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-ethics-organizations-20925.html
http://www.brighthub.com/office/entrepreneurs/articles/115557.aspx
http://www.funfactz.com/tags/employment/