HR Issues of Age Discrimination and Sexual Harassment
The Human Resource Department is an important branch of a company. The human resources department takes care of many essential functions of a business. According to the article, “Key Functions of an HR Department”, the human resource department is instrumental in providing labor law compliance, record keeping, hiring and training, compensation, relational assistance and help with handling specific performance issues (Mooney, L., 2011). Although, there are many HR issues, age discrimination and sexual harassment are among some of the many issues of the human resource department.
Age Discrimination Age discrimination is a concern in the workplace. One of the
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The jury found that IBM “knew or showed reckless disregard for whether its termination of the employee constituted age discrimination” (Schaefer, L., 2017). Furthermore, IBM’s human resource department did not properly protect this 61-year-old employee. According to this article, after this employee complained that he was being discriminated against because of his age, an IBM human resource manager directed an examination into this grievance. Upon the completion of this investigation, the HR manager found the employee was properly treated and was not discriminated against (Schaefer, L., 2017). However, the judge noted in this case that he thought “the purpose of the HR investigation was more to exonerate IBM than to determine if the employee was treated fairly (Schaefer, L., 2017). So, this is an example of the human resource department not properly doing their job of taking care of the company’s employees and ensuring the company follows legal laws. An important role of the HR is to manage employee situations. Upon the employee’s complaint, this IBM HR manager did not properly ensure that that the company was operating in compliance with the age discrimination law. If the IBM investigation was properly looked into then the HR manager would have mediated the situation and ensured the 61 year old employee was fairly treated. According to the article, “Key Functions of an HR Department”,
The workplace is a delicate environment filled with different personalities types. These differing needs of feeling safe and comfortable create many challenges in the workplace. The creation of the Human Resource Department has helped create a safety net for all employees to fall under and create a stable environment for employees to feel safe and secure. Regulations such as Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Department of Labor have in some ways removed the common sense and compassion in the workplace and replaced it with litigation. The effect of these regulations have balanced the workplace and created a more
The role of a Human Resource department is ever changing in today’s volatile business environment. Over the years HR have become strong strategic partners within an organization by providing functions such as recruitment,
Brooks Pharmaceuticals have to prove that discrimination against these employees was not because of their age. The dismissal of theses employees was solely based on their performance. Failure by the company to prove the fact, there would be legal problems for the organization.
I definitely believe that the plaintiff has a case based on the presented facts in the article. I think the screening guidelines that the defendant was using created a bias against older individuals. In addition, I think anytime who write on a piece paper “Targeted Candidate” and “Stay Away From” you clearly are creating bias in a process, and in this case, age was affected.
The function of the Human Resources department is to ensure that company policies are current as well as properly distributed to the workforce. Additionally they are tasked with recruiting, interviewing, and hiring employees.
“POW” Back In The Civil Rights Law”, Rita C. Tobin discusses the age discrimination case against Jack Gross, a successful claims administrator director, and how he was demoted to a lower position. Gross knew this demotion was due to his age, and he decided to sue the agency, but in turn lost. Gross’ case did open doors for other individuals that are fired or demoted due to ageism, and hopefully people are considered for a position due to their work ethic and work skills, not their
The Supreme Court’s reasoning behind the decision to overturn the district court’s ruling lay with the fact that the case at hand was still a discrimination case and violated the ADEA of 1967 and the Supreme Court realized this. They understood that this case was not black and white though, as the district court’s ruling made it seem. Furthermore, the Supreme Court appreciated that McKennon's misconduct was relevant in the formulation of the desired remedy requested by McKennon. Because of this, it became applicable for the court to consider the employee’s misconduct when determining the plaintiff’s desired relief. According to Hoffman (1996), the court was “sensitive to the employer's legitimate concerns and the lawful prerogatives of the employer in the usual course of its business” (p. 82). Additionally, the Supreme Court ruled that any employer who is seeking the implementation of after-acquired evidence of misconduct must prove that the misconduct was so severe that if the employee
The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits job discrimination on the basis of race, sex, color, religion, national origin, continues to face limitations (Bernardin, 2007). As I interview for open position within my organizations, I must remain neutral to sex, age, and race. Do I feel that this is always the case with all organization? No. There will always be questionable organizational standards and compliance issues. Employers may “stray” from the law if they feel organizational efficiency and production may be affected. This is portrayed in not hiring someone over 60 years of age. The candidate feels they have been discriminated against due to their age. Whereas, the employer sees a strong 30 year old who may be able to lift twice the
Age discrimination in employment is a complex issue which impacts many areas of Government policy and has many implications for individuals themselves. Age discrimination can occur across all spectrums of employment and can affect both young and old. Age discrimination can affect a person’s chances of getting a job, and potentially their chances of promotion or development within the workplace. Age can also be a factor when employers are deciding who should be selected during a workforce downsize or redundancy of work due to a mergers and acquisitions.
To critically and comprehensively address this case, it is convincingly important to assess the laws that forbids age discrimination and wrongful termination in workplace. Under the law, age discrimination can involve treating an employee or applicant less favorably because of her or his age. In accordance to the “Age Discrimination in Employment Act, it is unlawful to discriminate an employee on basis their age. The law is categorically clear that an employer not discriminate individuals who are 40 years old and above (Walsh, 2013). It should be noted that the Act provide for protection for the people/workers below 40 years. However, some states in the United States have laws in place that protect young employees against age discrimination. It is unlawful or illegal for employers or any other entity to consider hiring/favoring an older worker over the younger one. This withstands even if both employees are 40 and above. The law strongly prohibits age discrimination in any aspect of employment including firing, hiring, pay, promotions, job assignments, trainings, layoffs, benefits, and any other condition or term of employment.
The role of the human resources (HR) department can play a significant role in the success and achievements of an organization. The department, which has evolved from the
Our group research is based on age and gender discrimination in the workplace which involved study in men and women, also level of age between 18 years old until 30 years old and 31 years old and above years old. We have conducted a survey based on questionnaires which were given to 20 respondents with ratio; 10:10 of male and female; 10:10 of level of age between 18 years old until 30 years old and 31 years old and above years old; who are currently employed. Through the research that we have done, we conclude that some of the respondents have experienced age and gender discrimination.
The objective of the Human Resource Department is to design management systems to ensure human talent is maximized to effectively and efficiently achieve organizational goals. HR has seven functions that are intertwined. These functions are global, environmental, cultural geographic, political, social, legal, economic, and technological. Human resource management has the potential to drastically impact the success and effectiveness of an organization. Human Resources has heavily focused on recordkeeping and paperwork. It has often been considered a clerical and low-level administrative department. In most organizations, Human Resources is looked upon as the employee mediator in the organization. They tend to be the voice of the employee, building company morale and putting out fires involving crisis management. The problems they deal with are both employee work-related and not work-related. HR strives to ensure fair treatment for all employees. They work with varying departments throughout the organization in order to create and implement necessary programs and policies. HR works with equal employment opportunity and other laws, to ensure compliance. They work to fill current job openings by processing applications, interviewing, and training. They answer questions regarding benefits and wages and address safety issues. The expansion of technology and outsourcing have drastically transformed the
Human Resource Management can best be described as the area of an organization that is responsible for recruiting, training, motivating, and retaining employees. Although these are the main functions of Human Resources, other functions fall under the umbrella of Human Resource. Over the years Human Resources has evolved and including many more functions including compensation, benefits, performance management, and evaluation. No longer are Human Resources just for hiring, training, promotion, or terminating. There are several new privacy laws such as HIPPA, which Human Resources have to ensure company compliance. Another common misconception of HRM is the function is there for hiring, handing out
Human Resource department always has a challenge that is to ensure employees are motivated and committed to the organization with honesty. Human Resource department can act as a service provider for the employee and treat employees the same way organization would like them to treat their customers.HR conducts cultural events and dj nights for employees to bond.