Employment Discrimination

Discrimination means unequal treatment.”Employment discrimination is a form of discrimination based on race, gender, religion, national origin, physical or mental disability, and by age of employers.

Title VII of The Civil Rights Act of 1964 says that no person employed or seeking employment by a business with more than 15 employees may be discriminated against due to his or her race, colour, religion, sex or national origin.

There are 4 major types of employment discrimination namely:

1. Race

2. Sex

3. Age

4. Disability

Discrimination by Race

From Title VII of The Civil Rights Act, it is unlawful to discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of his/her race or color in regard to hiring, termination, promotion, compensation, job training, or any other term, condition, or privilege of employment. Title VII also deals with harrassment on the basis of race and/or color. Harrassment includes the use of ethnic slurs, racial “jokes”, offensive or derogatory comments, or other verbal or physical conduct. Title VII is also violated where minority employees are segregated by physically isolating them from other employees or from customer contacts.

 Sexual Discrimination

Sex or gender discrimination is treating individuals differently in their employment specifically because an individual is a woman or a man. some examples of potentially unlawful sex/gender discrimination that women, for example, may face:

1. Hiring/Firing/Promotions

2. Pay

3. Job Classification

Discrimination by reason of age

The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (also known as the “ADEA”) provides that no person shall be discriminated against because of his or her age. If an employer terminates an individual who is older than 40 years of age and there appears to be no valid reason for the termination other than the employee’s age, the former employee may have a valid complaint against the employer for age discrimination under this law. The ADEA’s protections apply to both employees and job applicants. Under the ADEA, it is unlawful to discriminate against a person because of his/her age with respect to any term, condition, or privilege of employment — including, but not limited to, hiring, firing, promotion, layoff, compensation, benefits, job assignments, and training.

Discrimination by reason of Disability

The ADA makes it unlawful for an employer with 15 or more employees to discriminate in all employment practices such as recruitment, hiring, promotion, training, lay-off, pay, firing, job assignments, leave, and/or benefits because of an employee’s disability.

The ADA defines a disability as:

1.A physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of your major life activities; and

2. There is a record of such impairment; or

3. You are regarded as having such an impairment.

These are some of the common workplace discrimination faced by employees in organisations. I’ll be talking about measures to curb such discrimination in workplace in the next article.

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