Fair Employment Practices
The umbrella term "Fair Employment Practices" refers to laws that prohibit discrimination in the workplace. When workplace discrimination is based upon age, sex, disability, or other protected statuses, employees are empowered by both federal and state laws that protect their right to be free from discrimination. Additionally, other laws require that employees receive a fair wage for their work, and allow workers the opportunity to care for themselves or family members when the need arises.
The Americans with Disabilities Act
Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, it is unlawful for an employer to intentionally discriminate against a qualified person with a disability because of that person's disability, if the person is otherwise qualified to do the job. Employer discrimination can take several forms: a company may refuse to hire or fail to promote a person with a disability, or it may terminate or lay off someone who becomes disabled.
What exactly constitutes a disability under the ADA is not as straightforward as one might expect. If an employee is deemed disabled under the ADA, then the Act requires the employer, rather than engaging in a prohibited action, to make a "reasonable accommodation" of the person's disability. When an employer terminates a person with a disability, or refuses to take any steps to accommodate him or her, then attorneys can step in to try to resolve this dispute.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 makes it unlawful for an employer to intentionally refuse to hire, discharge, or otherwise discriminate against any person with respect to compensation, tenure, conditions, or privileges of employment because of such person's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. In addition, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act describes discrimination based on pregnancy as included within Title VII's statutory description of discrimination based on sex.
Title VII also provides recourse for employees who have encountered harassment at work or a hostile work environment, as well as protections for employees who make complaints about such work environments.
The Age Discrimination in Employment Act
Under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, an employer may not discriminate against any employee because of that employee's age, when the employee's age is forty years of age or over.
There are two types of ADEA claims: disparate treatment claims and disparate impact claims. Disparate treatment claims allege that the employer failed to hire, failed to promote, or terminated a person above the age of 40, on the basis of the person's age. Disparate impact claims, on the other hand, allege that while the employer's employment practices or selection criteria appears to treat people of different ages equally, it has the effect of discriminating against persons 40 years of age or older. In disparate impact cases under the ADEA, a practice that disparately impacts workers over forty is nevertheless acceptable if it is reasonable.
The Equal Pay Act
The Equal Pay Act makes it unlawful for an employer to pay one employee less than another employee who is performing equal work, if that pay discrepancy exists because of an employee's sex.
The Act does not require that the jobs compared be exactly the same; rather, it requires proof that the performance of the two jobs demands substantially equal skill, effort and responsibility, and that the two jobs were performed under similar working conditions. Wages include all forms of compensation, including fringe benefits.
The Family and Medical Leave Act
The Family and Medical Leave Act provides eligible employees the right to take a total of twelve weeks of unpaid leave per year to do one or more of the following:
In addition, the Act provides up to 26 workweeks of leave during a single 12-month period to care for a covered servicemember with a serious injury or illness who is the spouse, son, daughter, parent, or next of kin to the employee.
After the period of qualified leave expires, the employee generally is entitled to be reinstated to the former position or an equivalent one with the same benefits and terms of employment that existed before the employee took the leave. Additionally, to insure the availability of these guarantees, the FMLA declares that it is unlawful for any employer to interfere with, restrain, or deny the exercise of or the attempt to exercise, any right provided by the FMLA. The FMLA also protects employees in the event they are discriminated against for exercising their rights under the FMLA.