Human Resource

Management
ELEVENTH EDITION
1
GARY DESSLER

Part 1 | Introduction

Chapter 2

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After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
1. Cite the main features of at least five
employment discrimination laws.
2. Define adverse impact and explain how it is
proved and what its significance is.
3. Explain and illustrate two defenses you can use in
the event of discriminatory practice allegations.
4. Avoid employment discrimination problems.
5. Cite specific discriminatory personnel
management practices in recruitment, selection,
promotion, transfer, layoffs, and benefits.
6. Define and discuss diversity management.

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 Post Liberalization in context to growth of
Indian economy, the country paying
attention in existing labour-legislation
framework in India.
 In the Constitution of India, along with the
principles of democracy, socialism &
secularism, the basic principles of India-
Labour legislation had been framed.
 For E.g. Article 14 refers to equality before
law.
Article 15- prohibition of discrimination on
grounds of religion, race, caste & sex.

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 Article 16 to equality of opportunity in
matters of public employment.
 Article 17 to abolition of untouchability.
 Article 19 covers right to freedom. Protection

of certain rights regarding freedom of

speech.

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Laws Related to Industrial Relationships
A) The Trade Union Act ( 1926).
B) Industrial Employment Act ( 1946).
C) Industrial Disputes Act ( 1947).
Laws Related to Wages.
A)The payment of Wages Act of 1936.
B)Minimum Wages Act of 1948.
Laws Related to Working Conditions
A) The Factories Act of 1948.
B) Shops and Commercial Establishments Act of 1961.
Laws Related to Equality and Empowerment of
Women.
A)Maternity Benefit Act 1961.
B) Equal Remuneration Act 1976.

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 Laws Related to Social Security.
A)The workmen's Compensation Act of 1923.
B)The Employee State Insurance Act of 1948.
C)The Employees Provident funds &Miscellaneous
Provisions Act 1952.
D)The Payment of Gratuity Act 1972.
E)Guidelines for Handling Sexual Harassment
Complaints.

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Title vii of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
 According to this act the employer cannot discriminate on
the basis of race, colour,religion,sex or national origin with
respect to employment.
 It covers all the employers including all public or private
employers who have 15 or more persons, in addition it
coves all private & public educational institutions, federal
government ,state & local governments.
THE EEOC.( Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission).
.The commission, created by Title VII ,is empowered to
investigate job discrimination complaints and sue on behalf
of complainants.

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 Executive Orders
 Equal Pay Act of 1963.
 Age Discrimination in Employment Act of

1967.
 Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
 Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978.
 Federal Agency Guidelines.

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 The Act requiring employers to make reasonable
accommodations for disabled employees, it prohibits
discrimination against qualified disabled persons.

A) AIDS
B) Qualified Individual.

C) Reasonable Accommodation.

D) Employer Defenses.

E) Technology and Accommodation.

F) Mental Impairments and the ADA.

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 An employer must make a reasonable accommodation for
a qualified disabled individual unless doing so would result
in undue hardship.
 Employers are not required to lower existing performance
standards or stop using tests for a job.
 Employers may ask pre-employment questions about essential
job functions but can not make inquiries about disability.
 Medical exams (or testing) for current employees must be
job-related.
 Employers should review job application forms, interview
procedures, and job descriptions for illegal questions and
statements.
 Employers should have up-to-date job descriptions that identify
the current essential functions of the job.

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 Courts will tend to define “disabilities” quite narrowly.
Employers i.e. should assess what effect the disorder has on
employees job performance-proper documents should be
assessed.
 Employers are not required to tolerate misconduct or erratic
performance, even if the behaviors can be attributed to the
disability.
 Employers do not have to create a new job for the disabled
worker nor reassign that person to a light-duty position for
an indefinite period, unless such a position exists.
 Employers should not treat employees as if they are disabled
if they can control their conditions with medication, so that
they will not be “regarded as” disabled and protected under
the ADA.

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 How employers defend themselves against
employment discrimination claims.
A) Adverse Impact.
How can someone show Adverse Impact.
1. Disparate Rejection Rates.

2. Restricted Policy.

3. Population Comparisons.

4. Mc Donnell Douglas Test.

B) Bona Fide Occupational Qualification.

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C ) Other Considerations in Discriminatory
Practice Defenses
1. Employers cannot hide behind collective bargaining
agreements( discriminatory practices are required by union
agreement)-equal opportunity laws override union
contract agreements.
2. Firms should react by agreeing to eliminate an illegal
practice and (when required) by compensating the people
discriminated against.

3. Good intentions are no excuse.

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 File Charge
 Charge Acceptance.
 Serve Notice.
 Investigation/Fact Finding Conference.
 Cause/No Cause.
 Conciliation.
 Notice to Sue.

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 Gilmer v. Interstate/Johnson Lane Corp.
◦ Employers can compel employees to agree to
mandatory arbitration of employment-related disputes.
 Recommendations
◦ Request party be compelled to arbitrate claim.
◦ Insert arbitration clause in employment applications and
employee handbooks.
◦ Protect arbitration process from appeal.


Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)

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Diversity in the workforce means employing people without discrimination on the
basis of gender, age and ethnic or racial background. Since globalization is the
current overwhelming trend in business, diversity in the workplace is a better
accepted and applied concept now more than ever.

 Benefits of a Diverse Workforce

 It is believed that companies employing a diverse workforce would be in a better
position to understand the demographics of the customers they serve much
better making them better able to thrive in the marketplace than companies that
hire only a limited group of employee demographics. Also, a company that
supports diversity of workforce is better able to address employee satisfaction
and retention issues.
 As globalizations is increasing it requires employers to hire individuals coming
from varied cultural background n language skills to deal with customers abroad.
 As companies are in process of expanding their businesses around the world,
diversity has become business imperative rather than good public relation activity.

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 Managing Diversity means maximizing
diversity potential benefits & minimizing the
potential barriers( such as prejudices &
bias).

 The benefits of diversity are greater cultural

awareness, broader language skills,
knowhow of different nation.

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Steps in a Diversity Management Program:

1 Provide strong leadership

2 Assess the situation

3 Provide diversity training and education

4 Change culture and management systems

5 Evaluate the diversity management program

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 In practice, employers use various means to manage
diversity. Baxter Healthcare Corporation started by adopting a
strong company policy: Baxter International believes that a
multi-cultural employee population is essential to the
company’s leadership in healthcare around the world. Baxter
then publicized this philosophy throughout the company. It
then took steps to foster diversity and to manage it. These
steps included evaluating diversity program efforts, recruiting
minority members to the board of directors, formally
interacting with representative minority and networks, and
offering diversity training programs.
◦ .

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 The early 1980s, a group of women at Reebok bemoaned the fact that they
could not find a good aerobics shoe. Listening to that complaint, Reebok
began marketing aerobics shoes, and within two years went from a $12
million-a-year shoe company to a $3 billion powerhouse. Since then, the
company has recognized the importance of diversity, making it a corporate
priority. CEO Paul Fireman said that in order to become diverse, a company
must find people with different stories to tell at every level of employment,
and then make room for them to talk. Diversity, he has said, does not mean
hiring those who are different and then forcing them to behave the same
way.
 McDonald's actively recruits older workers for management jobs and also
employs thousands of older workers in its restaurants. CEO Edward Rensi has
been quoted as saying that the company finds older workers to be
particularly well motivated, with discipline and work habits hard to find in
younger employees.

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 Equal employment opportunity aims to ensure that
anyone, regardless of
race,color,disability,sex,religion,national origin or
age has an equal opportunity based on his or her
qualification.

 Affirmative Action goes beyond this by having the

employer take actions in recruitment,
hiring,promotions& compensation to eliminate the
present effects of past discrimination.

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 Eliminating the present effects of past practices that excluded or
underutilized protected groups. ( women & Minorities),
 A)Good Faith Effort Strategy
Good faith effort strategy emphasizes identifying and eliminating the
obstacles to hiring and promoting women and minorities and increasing the
minority or female applicant flow, reasonable steps to take would include:
 1) Issue a written equal employment policy indicating that firm is an equal
employment opportunity employer, as well as statement indicating the
employer’s commitment to affirmative.
2) Demonstrate top management support for the equal employment policy –
for instance, by appointing a high ranking EEO (Equal Employment
Opportunity) administrator.
3) Publicize internally and externally the equal employment policy and
affirmative action commitment.
4) Survey present minority and female employment by department and job
classification to determine locations where affirmative action programs are
especially desirable.
5) Carefully analyze employer human resources practices to identify and
eliminate hidden barriers.

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 6) Develop and implement specific programs to improve female and
minority utilization. Here, review entire human resource
management system (including recruitment, selection, promotion,
compensation, and disciplining) to identify barriers to equal
employment opportunity and to make needed changes.

7) Use focused recruitment to find qualified applicants from the

target group(s).

8) Establish an internal audit and reporting system to monitor and

evaluate progress in each aspect of the program.

9) Develop support for the affirmative action program, both inside

the company (among supervisors for instance by making it part of
their performance appraisals) and in the community.

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 Avoiding employee resistance to affirmative action programs is
important. A review of 35 years of research suggests how employers
can increase employee support. Current employees need to see that
the program is fair.
 Transparent selection procedures (making it clear what selection
tools and standards the company uses) help in this regard.
Communication is also crucial. Make clear that the program doesn’t
involve preferential selection standards. Provide details on the
qualifications of all new hires (both minority and non-minority).
 Justifications for the program should emphasize redressing past
discrimination and the practical value of diversity, not under-
representation

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 The human resource manager who wants to assess the performance of his or
her company’s EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) and
diversity efforts has numerous metrics from which to choose. These might
include, for example, the number of EEOC claims per year; the cost of HR
related litigation; percent of minority / women promotions; and various
measures for analyzing the survival and loss rate among new diverse
employee groups.

 The HR manager may therefore want to rely on various computerized

solutions. One package called “Measuring Diversity Results” provides HR
managers with several diversity related software options aimed at boosting
the accuracy of the information at the manager’s disposal, and reducing the
costs of collecting and compiling.

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 Talking about hiring more minorities is one thing; actually doing so is another. In
practice, many minorities are less likely to be using the Internet, for instance, and
less likely to hear about good jobs from their friends.
 One option is to put recruiting ads to one or more of the online minority oriented
job markets. For example, Recruiting-Online lists dozens of online diversity
candidates resources. Diversity candidate Web sites with job banks include the
African American Network, National Action Council of Minorities in Engineering,
national Urban League, Hispanic Online, Latino Web, Society of Hispanic Engineers,
Gay.com Association for Women in Science, and Minorities Job Bank.

E) Reverse Discrimination.
 Reverse Discrimination claim that due to affirmative action quota systems, white males are
discriminated against.
 The courts have long been grappling with the use of quotas in hiring, and particularly with
claims of reverse discrimination (discriminating against non-minority applicants and
employees).

 

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 In Johnson v Transportation Agency Santa Clara County
(1987) the Court held that public and private employers may
voluntarily adapt and promotion goals to benefit minorities
and women. This ruling limited claims of reverse
discrimination by white males.
 In June 2001, the US Supreme Court refused to hear Texas’s
challenge to a ruing that one of its law school affirmative
action programs, which gives special consideration to black
and Mexican American student applicants, discriminated
against whites

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KEY TERMS

Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act Federal Violence Against Women Act
Equal Employment Opportunity of 1994
Commission (EEOC) protected class
affirmative action Civil Rights Act of 1991 (CRA 1991)
Office of Federal Contract Compliance mixed motive case
Programs (OFCCP)
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
Equal Pay Act of 1963
qualified individuals
Age Discrimination in Employment Act
adverse impact
of 1967 (ADEA)
disparate rejection rates
Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973
restricted policy
Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment
Act of 1974 bona fide occupational qualification
(BFOQ)
Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA)
alternative dispute resolution or ADR
uniform guidelines program
sexual harassment good faith effort strategy
reverse discrimination

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