2 - Equal Employment Opportunity Flashcards
Three factors that have influenced the growth of EEO legislation are:
(1) Changing attitudes toward employment ___________
(2) Published reports highlighting the problems and injustices experienced by _______ workers
(3) A growing body of laws and government regulations at different levels of government that legislators believed should be _________.
discrimination
minority
standardized
The Equal Pay Act of _____ was passed as an amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act. The Equal Pay Act outlaws discrimination in pay, employee benefits and pensions based on the worker’s ________.
Employers are prohibited from paying employees of one gender at a rate lower than that paid to members of the other gender for doing equal work. Jobs are considered “equal” when they require substantially the same skill, effort and responsibility under similar working conditions and in the same establishment. Employers do not violate the Equal Pay Act when differences in wages paid to men and women for equal work are based on _______ systems, merit considerations, or quantity or quality of production. However, these exceptions must not be based on the employee’s gender or serve to discriminate against one particular gender. Employers may not lower the wages of one gender to comply with the law; rather, they must raise the wages of the gender being underpaid.
1963
gender
seniority
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of _____ is the broadest and most significant piece of antidiscrimination legislation among the various statutes in this public policy area. It includes human resources management activities within its purview. It bars certain types of ________ with respect to hiring, training, promotion, transfers, pay, employee bene ts and other conditions of employment.
Discrimination is prohibited on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (also referred to as gender) or national origin. Because of the growing number of immigrant workers and workplace cultural and ethnic awareness, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has issued important guidelines on national origin discrimination. A “national _______ group” is defined as a group of people sharing a common language, culture, ancestry and/or similar social characteristics. Also prohibited under the act is discrimination based on _______. The act also created the EEOC to enforce the provisions of Title VII. The impact with respect to covered firms, organizations, employees and practices is extensive. However, employers are not required to hire, promote or retain unqualified people. Also, employers may use such objective factors as merit systems and seniority in making employment decisions, as well as any other factors not predicated on employees’ race, color, sex, religion or national origin.
1964
discrimination
origin
pregnancy
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 permits limited exemptions from antidiscrimination regulations if employment preferences are based on a ________, that is, in those cases where age, religion, sex or national origin is an actual qualification for performing a job.
The BFOQ exception is narrowly interpreted and does not apply to preferential treatment based on _____ or ______. When an organization claims this, it must be able to prove that hiring on the basis of sex, religion, age or national origin is a _________.
The above has been interpreted by the courts as a practice that is necessary to the safe and efficient operation of the organization. For example, an older person could legitimately be excluded from consideration for employment as a model for teenage designer jeans.
bonafide occupational qualification - BFOQ
race or color
business necessity
Employers are not required to make every possible allowance for the religious preferences of employees or to grant complete religious freedom with respect to employment relations. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 requires employers to make a reasonable ________ to the religious observances and practices of current employees or job applicants without incurring undue hardship on the business.
accommodation
The Civil Rights Act of _______ provides for compensatory and punitive damages and jury trials in employment cases involving intentional discrimination or unlawful harassment.
Compensatory damages include payment for future money losses, emotional pain, suffering, mental anguish and other nonmonetary losses. Punitive damages are awarded if it can be shown that the employer engaged in ________ with malice or reckless ________ to the law. The act requires employers to demonstrate that job practices are job related and consistent with business necessity and extends coverage to U.S. citizens working for American companies overseas.
1991
discrimination
indifference
The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of ______ expanded the statute of limitations concerning lawsuits related to ________.
It states that the 180-day statute of limitations for filing an equal pay lawsuit with EEOC resets with each new discriminatory ________ an employee receives—not the date the employee received his or her first discriminatory paycheck.
2009
discriminatory pay
paycheck
The Age Discrimination in Employment Act prohibits private and public employers with ___ or more employees from discriminating against persons who are ____ years of age or older in any area of employment because of age. In recent years the number of age discrimination complaints led with the EEOC has been steadily trending _____.
20
40
upward
The Equal Employment Opportunity Act of ______ amended Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in two important areas.
First, the coverage of Title VII was extended to state and local ________ employees and to the employees of public and private educational institutions.
Second, the enforcement powers of EEOC were strengthened by allowing the agency itself to bring _______ suits, and regional _______ centers were established to provide faster and more effective court action.
1972
government
enforcement
litigation
Before the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, pregnant women could be forced to ______ or take a leave of absence and employers did not have to provide disability or medical coverage for pregnancy.
The act makes pregnancy a _______ that must be treated similarly to any other medical conditions. The law also prohibits discrimination in the hiring, promotion, transfer or termination of women because of pregnancy.
resign
disability
The Americans with Disabilities Act of _____ prohibits employers from discriminating against individuals with physical and mental disabilities or who are _______. It requires employers to make a reasonable accommodation to disabled persons who are otherwise qualified to work, unless doing this would be an undue hardship.
A disability is defined as a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major activities; a record of such impairment; or being regarded as having such an impairment. Persons regarded as having a disability include, for example, individuals with disfiguring burns.
The requirements for making a reasonable accommodation generally include such actions as making facilities ______ and ________ to disabled persons, restructuring jobs, permitting part-time or modified work schedules, reassigning to a vacant position and changing equipment and/or expense. Moreover, employers cannot use ______ procedures that tend to screen out disabled persons unless the procedure is job related and is consistent with business necessity, and acceptable job performance cannot be achieved through reasonable accommodation.
1990
chronically ill
accessible / usable
selection
Covering all military personnel, including National Guard members, reservists and active-duty military personnel, the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of ______ (USERRA) protects the employment rights of individuals who enter the military for up to _____ years. They can return to their private sector jobs without risk of loss of seniority or benefits.
USERRA protects against discrimination on the basis of military obligation in the areas of hiring, job retention and advancement. Other provisions under the act require employers to make reasonable efforts to retrain or upgrade skills to qualify employees for reemployment, expand health care and employee retirement plan coverage, and extend the length of time an individual may be absent for military duty from four to five years. In _____, the law was amended by the Veterans Benefits Improvement Act, requiring employers to provide a _______ of rights, benefits and obligations of both employees and employers.
1994
five
2004
notice
The Vocational Rehabilitation Act of ______ deals with the problem of discrimination in employment with respect to physically and mentally disabled persons of ______. The statute prohibits discrimination against the disabled, assuming they can perform the work required, by all federal contractors and subcontractors whose contracts exceed $______.
Recipients of federal financial assistance, such as public and private colleges and universities, also are covered. Covered employers must make a reasonable accommodation, and take affirmative action, to hire disabled individuals, but are not required to employ unqualified persons.
The term disabled individual means “any person who (1) has a physical or mental impairment which substantially limits one or more of such person’s major ________, (2) has a record of such an impairment, or (3) is regarded as having such an impairment.” This definition closely parallels the definition of disabled individual provided in the Americans with Disabilities Act.
1973
working age
$2,500
life activities
Executive Order 11246 created OFCCP which is ______________.
Primarily it prohibits discrimination against __________ by federal agencies and contractors. OFCCP administers the executive order and several statutes. It issues guidelines, enforces compliance and reviews affirmative action (AA) plans that are required by some employers.
Federal agencies and government contractors with contracts of $_____ or more must comply with the antidiscrimination provisions of Executive Order 11246.
Government contractors or subcontractors having _____ or more employees with contracts in excess of $50,000 are required to develop AA plans.
Office of Federal Contract Compliance programs (OFCCP)
protected classes
$10,000
50
EEOC guidelines on sexual harassment are specific, stating that “unwelcome _______, requests for _______, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature” constitute sexual harassment when submission to the conduct is tied to continuing employment or advancement. E
EOC recognizes two forms of sexual harassment as being illegal under Title VII. The first, ________ harassment, occurs when “submission to or rejection of sexual conduct is used as a basis for employment decisions.” This type of harassment involves a tangible or economic consequence, such as a demotion or loss of pay. If a supervisor promotes an employee only after the person agrees to an after-work date, the conduct is clearly illegal.
The second type of harassment, _________, can occur when unwelcome sexual conduct “has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with job performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment.” E-mails, instant and text messages and posts on social- networking sites are ways by which some employees sexually harass their co-workers electronically. EEOC considers an employer guilty of sexual harassment when the employer knew or should have known about the unlawful conduct and failed to remedy it or to take corrective action. Employers are also guilty of sexual harassment when they allow __________ (customers or salespeople) to sexually harass employees.
advances
sexual favors
quid pro quo
hostile environment
nonemployees
