Equal Employment Opportunity Recognizing Discrimination This course will help you to develop a broad understanding of employment discrimination and the different types of workplace conflicts. As human resource professionals, you will be tasked with the responsibility of researching, understanding, and recognizing discrimination. Federal laws protect employees from discrimination based on race, color, national origin, sex, religion, disability, genetic information, citizenship status, and age (if the employee is at least 40 years old). These laws apply only to employers of a certain size. For example, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the main federal law prohibiting discrimination, applies only to employers that have at least 15 employees. Some states have enacted laws that go further. These are topics that you will be expected to be able to research as a human resource professiona

These are situations where protected classes were intentionally treated differently from other employees or evaluated by different standards. Examples:

• A manager rejects Mexican-American applicants on the grounds that they might be illegal aliens.
• Sexual harassment, where a manger refuses to promote an employee who will not engage in sexual relations with him or her.
• Having a different entry requirement for men than for women.
• White employees who violate organizational policy are not disciplined but black employees who violate the same policy are disciplined.
• An organization hires only high-school graduates for custodial positions.

After making your selection, utilize the Internet to examine the antidiscrimination law of your home state and compare and contrast it to the federal antidiscrimination law. Once you have completed your research,

• Discuss the similarities and differences between the federal law and the law of your home state.
• Based on the example you selected, make at least two recommendations that would assist an employer with conforming to the federal and state legislative requirements. Explain the basis for your recommendation.
• In light of the way in which disparate treatment cases are decided, explain why it is important that employers document the reasons for their employment decisions; develop and consistently adhere to policies; carefully monitor and review decisions, particularly terminations; and train supervisors.

The State of California