Sexual harassment in business America

CHAUNCEY M. HOLLIE NOVEMBER 21, 2003 BLAW 310, SECT 003 SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN BUSINESS AMERICA Sexual harassment is defined as a form of unlawful sex discrimination. Under federal law in the United States, sexual harassment is unwanted verbal or physical behavior of a sexual nature that occurs in the workplace or in an educational setting. This unwanted conduct, which is based on sex or of a sexual nature, can make a person feel uncomfortable, afraid, or helpless. Sexual harassment can be targeted toward either gender, however, the majority of cases involve a female being the target victim. Studies show that 40 to 90% of all United States working women have or will experience some form of sexual harassment throughout their careers. In this paper, sexual harassment in the workplace will be discussed, along with the laws, the effects, and the employer responsibilities involved with sexual harassment. The first sexual harassment case was decided by the American Court System under Title VII in 1976. In 1980, after more complaints began to surface, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued guidelines as to what constitutes sexual harassment under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VII prohibits employment discrimination on the bases of sex, color, or origin. Still, the public remained almost blind to the subject, until

  • Word count: 802
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Law
Access this essay

Analyse the Effectiveness of the Law in Relation to Affirmative Action as it applies to Women. Affirmative Action laws have greatly increased, statistically, the role of women in the workforce

Analyse the Effectiveness of the Law in Relation to Affirmative Action as it applies to Women. Affirmative Action laws have greatly increased, statistically, the role of women in the workforce as well as improving working conditions and awards granted to women. However, many argue this is just a superficial answer to a deep underlying problem of a male orientated workforce. Other critics argue that while the principles of Affirmative action are good, the legislation itself is ineffective, and finally, some opponents argue that Affirmative Action undermines the principles of equality. Supporters for Affirmative action, ague that equality will eventually be achieved, as discrimination will be removed and employers will be forced to accept women as equal employees. Affirmative Action, in theory, as laid out in the Affirmative Action (equal opportunity for women) Act 1986 would eliminate discrimination against women and create equal opportunities. Supporters claim the legislation is reversing past discrimination and natural bias, created from centuries of a male dominated work force, they also argue that using Affirmative Action to place women into high management roles will create role models for future generations, in which Affirmative Action will hopefully not be necessary. One of the primary components of Affirmative Action, however, is that women, when they have equal

  • Word count: 674
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Law
Access this essay

Explain and give examples of how employees are safeguarded by employment law.

M2 Explain and give examples of how employees are safeguarded by employment law Employees in a business like Boots need to be safeguarded. If they were not safeguarded then the employees may think it is not a good work place. In this case they would leave the business. Therefore Boots has a leaflet showing to the employees what kind of things they don't accept. For example: Race relation Act Disability discrimination Act Sex discrimination Act Employment Rights Act The Race relations act is to protect all the different races and cultures. For example if Boots called two different races to an interview, people cannot be treated differently or favorably because of their background or religion. There are two types of racist act, these are known as indirect and direct. Indirect is when a company might say no Japanese can apply because of their language. Direct racism is when a company might say no red people can apply. The disability discrimination act is that you can't discriminate other people because of their disability. Businesses must provide facilities for the disabled people who apply to work in businesses. Things like: * Lifts * Ramps * Disability car parks * Disability toilets * Automatic doors This would then please the customers at Boots and other businesses. In this case there is an even chance of more people to be employed. An example of what

  • Word count: 664
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Law
Access this essay

Taxman V Board of Education of the Township of Piscataway United States Court of Appeals 91 F.3D 1547 (3D Cir. 1996)

Stephen Warwick Prof. Boyd Spring '04 /25/04 Assignment 1 Taxman V Board of Education of the Township of Piscataway United States Court of Appeals91 F.3D 1547 (3D Cir. 1996) The 91 refers to the volume number of the reporter. The F.3D refers to the federal reporter in the third series. The 1547 refers to the first page in that volume on which the case can be located. The 3D Cir. refers to the abbreviation denoting that this case was decided to the United States Court of Appeals for the third circuit, and the case was tried in 1996. The Defendant (Board of Education of the Township of Piscataway) needed to reduce its faculty by one. New Jersey law strictly enforced layoffs, leaving the school board with no choice except in cases involving faculty members. The Plaintiff (Taxman) a white female business teacher had the same qualifications and was hired on the same day as a black female business teacher. In previous years, when a layoff came about the board had used a random process to determine who would be laid off. In this case, the board decided to use an affirmative action policy as a basis for retaining the black teacher. Plaintiff Taxman cried reverse discrimination. Circuit Judge Mansmann found in favour of the plaintiff and enjoyed the affirmative action plan, basing his decision on Title VII. Later the defendant appealed, but it was settled before it

  • Word count: 644
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Law
Access this essay

Employee Rights: How employment law safeguard employees and how the equal opportunities of employees are safeguarded by legislation.

How employment law safeguard employees and how the equal opportunities of employees are safeguarded by legislation. The Employment Rights Act 1996 Confirms the statutory (legal) rights of employees and covers the contract of employment, payslips, guarantee payslips, Sunday working, time off work, maternity rights, termination of employment, unfair dismissal and remedies for unfair dismissal, redundancy, lay offs and short time working, and the insolvency of an employer. The Sex Discrimination Act 1975 THE SEX DISCRIMINATION ACT makes it unlawful to discriminate: > In the arrangement made for recruitment to the job, e.g. advertising or interviews. > In the terms on which the job is offered. > In deciding who is offered the job. > In the provision of opportunities for promotion, transfer or training. > In the benefits, facilities or services an employer grants to employees. > In dismissals, redundancy or other unfavourable treatment of employees. Jobs cannot be labelled as 'for men' or 'for women' except in very specific circumstances where the person's sex is considered to be a 'genuine occupational qualification' (e.g. acting) or the work takes places entirely or mostly abroad. The Sex Discrimination Act covers two types of discrimination: > Direct discrimination - unfair treatment because of a person's sex > Indirect discrimination - setting conditions

  • Word count: 586
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Law
Access this essay

There are several things to consider when comparing employment laws between different states. There are costs of hourly wages, the points at which overtime must be considered, amounts of taxes, hiring and firing processes and costs and age requirements.

There are several things to consider when comparing employment laws between different states. There are costs of hourly wages, the points at which overtime must be considered, amounts of taxes, hiring and firing processes and costs and age requirements. The cost of labor can greatly influence how profitable a firm can be. Washington, Idaho and California all have different minimum wages. The minimum wage in California is $6.75 an hour. The minimum wage in Idaho is only $5.15, which is the same as federal wages. Washington has the highest minimum wage at $7.16 an hour; it has been increasing noticeably in the past few years. The level of minimum wage will affect human resource costs that often are a big part of production costs. The overtime point is different for each of the three states. In Idaho, there is no overtime pay. Employees can work as many hours as employers want them to without getting any increase in pay. In Washington an employer must give overtime pay to any employee who works over a 40-hour workweek. Overtime pay is one and one-half of the regular hourly wages. In California regular overtime rates must be paid for any amount over 8 hours and double the regular wages for over 12 hours a day as well as 40 hours in a workweek. California law states that an employer can be sued for harassment if a manager or higher authority knew about the

  • Word count: 558
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Law
Access this essay

Employment Law and Equal Opportunities legislation

Employment Law and Equal Opportunities legislation The Employment Rights Act 1996 was created so every employee has the right to holidays, leave, payslips, redundancy payment, and maternity leave. The Race Relations Act 1976 was created so everyone would be treated equally, whatever their colour race religion nationality citizenship or ethnic origin. The Sex Discrimination Act 1975 was created to stop discrimination between males and females as this occurs in training, recruiting, dismissing and promotion prospects. Without any of these legislation's in place anyone could get treated unfairly at work. For example; Mr Black went to get a job at a company and was told by Mr White that he couldn't have a job in charge of white people. This would be discrimination because of his colour and Mr Black would be able to take this to court now that the Race Relations Act is in place. Mrs Muslim tries to get a job as a nurse and is told that she will have to wear a short nurses traditional uniform but wearing a short dress is against her religion. She asks if she could wear trousers but is told no even though the men are allowed to wear trousers. This is discrimination against her religion and she could take further action using the Race Relations Act 1976. Mrs Female is the most qualified person at an interview for a doctor but is told she did not get the job. When she finds

  • Word count: 397
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Law
Access this essay

The differences between lexical and inflectional morphology

The differences between lexical and inflectional morphology Analogous to the difficulties in defining the term "word", is the great deal of difficulty involved in differentiating between lexical and inflectional morphology. In order to contrast these two morphologies we must, of course define them. As is customary, everything is simple to start with. Lexical morphology is the study of morphological relations among lexemes. Fundamentally it deals with the relationship between complex and simple lexemes. Try, for example, is a simple lexeme, it cannot be broken down into simpler morphological elements. A more complex lexeme would be trying. In addition, there are compound lexemes, an example being swordfish. Different lexemes have separate entries and different definitions in the dictionary. Inflectional morphology, on the other hand, is concerned with the relationship within paradigms. A paradigm, here, are the forms of the same lexeme. These include the past, plural and possessive. A paradigm does not change the grammatical class of its stems. This branch of morphology deals with "semantic opposition among categories" and the formal means, such as inflections, that enable the discrimination between morphosyntactic categories. A morphosyntactic category is one in which criteria from morphology and syntax apply. To give you a specific example of the differences

  • Word count: 349
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Law
Access this essay