Essay about Legal Issues In Reduction Of Workforce

Over the last several decades, workplace issues have become an area of controversy for most employers. This is because the regulations surrounding what practices are considered to be discriminatory have increased dramatically. To enforce these issues, the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC) is playing a central role in making employers follow these provisions of the law. A recent example of this occurred, with the case EEOC v. HCS Medical Staffing Inc.

The purpose of this paper is to go over a lawsuit that was filled by the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The paper will cover who the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) is and their role in the lawsuit. It will go over whether or not the lawsuit promotes social change. The paper will also go over how the EEOC as well as other news groups released information about the case to the public. I will then give my take on how I would implement new strategies to make sure the problem does not come up in the workplace again.

If the employer has a payroll in Ontario of at least $2.5 million, and the employee has given at least five years of service, the employee is also entitled to statutory severance pay of one week per year to a maximum of 26 weeks.

The United States Supreme Court, as well as federal district and state courts, defines employee rights and an employer’s liability for employment law violations. Treatment on the job, including hiring, firing, and promotions, must be based on qualifications and merit and not on race, gender, age, sexual preference or how one responds to sexual advances. Yet despite these laws and policies, many employees continue to suffer from workplace harassment and employment discrimination.

The challenges of an organization can influence the performance of an organization from a satisfaction with pay (Gomez-Mejia, Balkin, & Cardy, 2016, p. 296). The employee salary within an organization is a huge cause for turnover of employees (p. 296). First, the topic of employee salary is of great importance for the current and potential workforce (Lee & Lin, 2014, p. 1577). In addition, employees that have the perception on receiving lower compensation that others within their market will lack in performance and have a desire to leave the organization (p. 1577). In retrospect, the regular evaluation of compensation within the organization is vital to the reduction of employee turnover (p. 1577).

Managers and employers are cautioned to pay close attention to these court cases as to avoid performance and legal action related to post 9/11 backlash. These cases identified organizations that were unsuccessful in having discrimination cases dismissed because there was a “failure to promptly correct improper behavior when brought to its attention” and retaliation and/or abuse from managers or co-workers (Borstoff 2011 & Malos 2010, p. 307).

Another reason is that advances in technology influence the way jobs are performed. For example, Tesco now have self-service machines so fewer employees will be recruited to work on the tills and instead they are able to stock the shelves and increase sales. Also, another reason is that there may be staff being promoted internally which means somebody already working for a company gets a promotion to a higher job. Therefore, their former role will need to be filled by recruiting someone new.

The aim of this early conciliation is to encourage as many cases as possible to settle ‘compromising’ the claim through a settlement agreement (previously called a ‘compromise agreement’) an agreement achieved through Acas conciliation (a ‘COT3’). Appendix 3 is an early conciliation Flow Chart (ACAS)

The retention of employees basically refers to different procedures and practices that help retain employee for a much longer period of time. The following issues should be taken under consideration if they want their employees retained for a longer time period: management, communication, salaries, decision making, perks, career development, recruitment, understanding and appreciation (Belanger and Caron, 2005).

Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) laws have helped shape the workforce today and they have greatly contributed to the introduction of diversity in the working environment. No longer are people rejected of employment based on their race, gender, age, or disability. The labor force has increased from 62 million people in 1950 to over 159 million people in the labor force today (Toolsi). The passing of the EEO laws proved to be a great advancement in the diversity of the workforce and treatment of employees, but it was a tremendous battle to get where we are today. Before the passing of these laws, unequal treatment was normal and discrimination was common among the majority of employers. This made acquiring employment difficult and caused many people to be unemployed. Three Equal Employment Opportunity laws that helped diminish these discriminatory practices were Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Equal Pay Act of 1963, and the American with Disabilities Act of 1990. For each law, I will describe what it enforces and explain the actions that happened in society and the workplace that made these laws necessary. I will discuss important political figures that contributed to the passing of these laws. Lastly, I will examine how each law has improved human resources and has led to better management of employees overall.

While equal rights and equal pay legislation made it illegal to discriminate “based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin“ (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 2011b, p. 1), the number of workplace discrimination cases continue to rise and is costing employers more than $319 million in 2010, not counting litigation (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 2011a). Many employers have extensive human resource organizations with a sophisticated grasp on the implications of equal rights legislation on employers, that employ professionals, like I/O psychologists and attorneys, to establish fair policies and employment practices, and decrease an employer’s risk of litigation (Aamodt, 2010). In fact, employers often perform statistical analysis of employment practices to understand whether the practice could have an adverse impact against members of a protected class. For example, testing is a practice employers use for employee selection in the hiring process; even when an employment test is determined to be reliable, valid, and cost-efficient, care is taken to assure testing predicts performance equally well for all applications (Aamodt, 2010). Because governments and corporations have a fiduciary duty to citizens and shareholders, employers should continue to care about the issue of adverse impact, but more importantly, both government and corporations have a civil responsibility to treat the members of society fairly, because societal

retirement provisions to leave their jobs before they would otherwise have chosen to retire. Others who remain on the job claim that they confront hostile work environments or are demoted to less remunerative positions, with their age being the big factor.

The American employment laws are designed to foster human dignity and in the process provide employees with various tangible benefits. It is therefore expected for employees to be on the forefront in supporting and adhering to them. Likewise if an organization applies effectively these laws, it can benefit massively from dynamic, healthy, motivated, and productive employees. It therefore goes without saying that managers, just like employees, should promote these laws and thus ensures the organization conforms to them. Generally these laws govern the workplace actions of employers and employees. It ensures a fruitful and legally conducive environment and relationship exists between these two parties, and within employees

Employment or labor laws have been developed to facilitate smooth relationship between employers and employees. Employment laws provide rules and regulations that should govern both the employer and the employees in their places of work. Employment laws discuss issues related to child labor, wages and salaries, retirement, working conditions, compensations, incentives and employment benefits among others. The major objective is to ensure the employer does not exploit the employee and on the other hand, the employee honors the terms and conditions of the job as presented by the employer.

Severance pay was provided to those employees not matched to vacant positions. In other words, if the company offered an employee a comparable position (even one involving a transfer) and the employee refused the new job, no severance benefits were paid. Relocation packages were provided in the case of job transfers. Finally, the organization offered outplacement services to displaced workers.