Law assignment on: Federal & State legislation

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) enforces all of these laws. EEOC also provides oversight and coordination of all federal equal employment opportunity regulations, practices, and policies.

The Federal laws prohibiting job discrimination are:

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII), which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin; the Equal Pay Act of 1963 (EPA), which protects men and women who perform substantially equal work in the same establishment from sex-based wage discrimination; the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA), which protects individuals who are 40 years of age or older; Title I and Title V of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), which prohibit employment discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities in the private sector, and in state and local governments; Sections 501 and 505 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which prohibit discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities who work in the federal government; and the Civil Rights Act of 1991, which, among other things, provides monetary damages in cases of intentional employment discrimination.

Employers And Other Entities Covered By EEO LawsTitle VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) cover all private employers, state and local governments, and education institutions that employ 15 or more individuals. These laws also cover private and public employment agencies, labor organizations, and joint labor management committees controlling apprenticeship and training.

The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) covers all private employers with 20 or more employees, state and local governments (including school districts), employment agencies and labor organizations.

The Equal Pay Act (EPA) covers all employers who are covered by the Federal Wage and Hour Law (the Fair Labor Standards Act). Virtually all employers are subject to the provisions of this Act.

Multinational Employers

U.S.-based companies that employ U.S. citizens outside the United States or its territories, and multinational employers that operate in the United States or its territories, are covered under EEO laws, with certain exceptions. For answers to common questions about how EEO laws apply to multinational employers, please see:

• The Equal Employment Opportunity Responsibilities of Multinational Employers
• Employee Rights When Working for Multinational Employers

Federal GovernmentTitle VII, the ADEA, and the EPA also cover the federal government. In addition, the federal government is covered by Sections 501 and 505 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended, which incorporate the requirements of the ADA. However, different procedures are used for processing complaints of federal discrimination. For more information on how to file a complaint of federal discrimination, contact the EEO office of the federal agency where the alleged discrimination occurred.

The Civil Service Reform Act of 1978 (not enforced by EEOC) covers most federal agency employees except employees of a government corporation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, and as determined by the President, any executive agency or unit thereof, the principal function of which is the conduct of foreign intelligence or counterintelligence activities, or the General Accounting Office.

Other Important EEOC Links:

EEO-1 Survey Web siteA web site disigned to provide employers with information on filing the EEO-1 Survey. This includes information on who must file, how to file, online filing, when to file, job classifications, NAICS codes and descriptions, EEO-1 Survey System Privacy Impact Assessment, contact information, getting assistance, filing procedures and Revisions to the EEO-1 for 2007 filing.

What An Employer Should Know EEOC Investigations
Explains what the EEOC is, What happens when a charge has been filed against company, mediation, settlement, conciliation, and how to eeoc can assist companies being investigated.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Enforcement Guidances and Related Documents
Contains FAQs, Factsheets, manuals and other documents designed to help employers comply with EEO laws.Diversity at Work Datebook

• Chartered Institute of Personnel Employment Law Qualifications Open Evening.
  April 24 ~ London, UK
• Washington Association of Multicultural Educators Presents Becoming Culturally Competent.
  April 25 ~ Seattle, WA
• Summit on Leading Diversity.
  April 30-May 2 ~ Atlanta, GA

Legislative Policies regarding EEO:In Australia, legislation prohibits discrimination on grounds of sex, pregnancy and

marital status and prohibits sexual harassment. Industrial relations legislation contains

provisions that promote equal pay and guarantee unpaid parental leave for workers

who meet certain employment standards. Provisions that supplement this leave with

paid leave and provide a right to return to work after maternity leave on a part-time

basis are contained in some industrial agreements or organisational policies.

Provisions for leave from work to undertake family caring responsibilities are

generally contained in an award or agreement made in an industrial commission

between an employer and a trade union but may also be contained in organisational

policies. Recent legislation (Workplace Relations Act 2006) has foisted more

responsibility on individual firms to negotiate terms of employment rather than

relying on trade union negotiations or industry-wide determinations.  Legislation and Policy Development in Australia

In Australia, industrial decisions designed to redress unequal pay commenced in the

late 1960s, anti-discrimination legislation was enacted from 1975 in Commonwealth

and state legislatures, affirmative action legislation followed from the mid 1980s,

work and family policies emerged in the early 1990s and managing diversity from the

late 1990s. The early developments were a response to changing labour market trends

and international developments such as United Nations and International Labour

Organisation (ILO) conventions and the nascent civil rights and women’s movements

(Lake 1999 214-230; Grimshaw et al 1994 297-314). The 1980s saw a period of

heightened legislative change designed to redress systemic discrimination of women

in the workplace, including affirmative action legislation.

Equal Pay Policy

In Australia, equal pay decisions have come through the industrial relations system

rather than through legislation. Until the 1970s unequal pay rates for women were

implemented by the industrial relations system. Indeed, until the Second World War

most women received about half the pay of men doing exactly the same job, with a

later increase to 75 per cent of the male rate (Ryan and Conlon 1989). Yet in the past

four decades the industrial relations system has provided the major route towards pay

equity and few issues have been dealt with through the anti-discrimination pathway.

In the 1960s, against the backdrop of increasing female labour market participation

and the emerging recognition of race and sex discrimination, the peak trade union

organisation, the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), initiated and led

successful equal pay cases in the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration

Commission in 1969 and 1972. Different pay rates for women and men doing the

same job were no longer allowed, so that many women were accorded pay equity with

men (Ryan and Conlon 1989: 162). Largely as a result of these decisions, Australia’s

female to male earnings ratio increased faster in the 1970s than that of any other

country, from around 0.60 to 0.80 in six years (Burgess et al 1998).

An attempt to widen the concept to ‘work of equal value’ (comparable worth) in 1986

was unsuccessful (Rafferty 1994: 467). However, the women’s movement and trade

unions continued to press for a re-examination and new wage fixing principles were

adopted in 2000 in the state of New South Wales. The crux of these is that

‘assessment of the work, skill and responsibility…is to be approached on a gender

1 The pace quickened with the election of a federal conservative government in 1996

and the introduction of workplace or enterprise bargaining (Workplace Relations Act

1996). More recently a conservative majority in both houses of federal parliament

facilitated the introduction widespread changes in industrial relations legislation,

removing all but the most basic protection for workers and reinforcing the existing

emphasis on individual as opposed to collective workplace agreements (Workplace

Relations Amendment (Work Choices) Act 2005). As most of these agreements are

confidential, and there are few legislative minima, changes will occur on an individual

basis and the outcomes for women workers will be hard to discover.

 

Anti-Discrimination Legislation

The Australian Sex Discrimination Act 1984 which follows the ILO Convention 111

of 1958 (ratified in 1973) makes it unlawful to discriminate on the grounds of sex,

marital status or pregnancy and prohibits sexual harassment. The Act recognises the

phenomenon of structural or indirect discrimination which ‘arises from the fact that

organisational norms, rules and procedures, used to determine the allocation of

positions and benefits, have generally been designed…around the behaviour patterns

of the historically dominant group in public life (Anglo-Australian, able-bodied,

heterosexual males)’ (Hunter 1992: 5). This has enabled groups of women to pursue

remedies. A celebrated case involved women workers challenging the ‘last on, first

off’ rule for redundancies at a steel works which had refused over many years to

employ women in operational jobs, hence women had a shorter length of employment

(Scutt 1990: 61-62). In recent court cases, however, there has been a ‘refusal to

acknowledge the fact that male and female employees are generally not similarly

situated’ in relation to family responsibilities(Adams 2005: 34). This suggests that

the legislation does not protect workers with family responsibilities from indirect

discrimination.

The 1986 Act was replaced by the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace

Act 1999 (EOWW Act). The overall goals of the two Acts are similar: to promote the

principle that employment for women should be dealt with on the basis of merit, to

promote elimination of discrimination and provision of equal opportunity for women,

and to foster workplace consultation between employers and employees on these

issues (EOWW Act Section 2A). Underlying this legislation is the dual recognition of

benefits for business and the economy together with a commitment to social justice.

Neither Act defines equal opportunity itself but An ‘Equal Opportunity for Women in

the Workplace’ program is interpreted as appropriate action to eliminate

discrimination and contribute to the achievement of equal opportunity for women

(EOWW Act Section 3).

 Other Policies covered Under EEO:

Work and Family Policies

Affirmative action and equal opportunity legislation programs take no explicit

account of life outside work and its interaction with paid employment (for example

Bacchi 1990: 169) and assume a full-time male worker as the norm. As Thornton

(1995: 8) noted, ‘the legislative endeavours carefully cordon off the domestic sphere

from scrutiny’. Work and family policies, not underpinned by legislation, entered the

equal opportunity discourse in the 1990s. They present an apparently non-gendered

face to employment equity and can be seen to address this criticism. Broader terms

such as ‘work/life balance’ signify a wider perspective of non-working life than family

care. In contrast to affirmative action programs which do not seek explicitly to change

the organisation of work or the interface between paid work and private life, work and

family policies focus on this interface and a potential change in the balance of paid work

and caring between women and men.

The term ‘managing diversity’ (MD) came to Australia from the USA as a

management strategy. In the USA, the popularity of MD reflects a search by

organisations for an alternative to the contentious affirmative action model and as a

way to broaden what was seen as a narrow agenda that concentrated on hiring to

include issues of retention, integration and career development (Agocs and Burr 1996:

34). It conveniently by-passes the conflicting arguments about affirmative action,

equal treatment and equal outcomes by focussing on the individual employee and

his/her needs. Diversity of sex, age, background, race, disability, personality and

workstyle are typically included on ‘the premise that harnessing these differences will

create a productive environment in which everybody feels valued, where their talents

are being fully utilized and in which organizational goals are met’ (Kandola and

Fullerton 1994: 8).

A range of activities may be involved in

managing diversity, such as:

ensuring that HRM systems are bias-free, facilitating higher career

involvement of women, promoting knowledge and acceptance of cultural

differences, ensuring involvement in education…and dealing with

employees’ resistance to diversity (De Cieri and Kramar 2005: 15).

Workplace Conduct Policy

UCAR strives to maintain a work environment that encourages mutual respect and professionalism and is free from all forms of harassment, intimidation and violence. UCAR does not tolerate any form of such behavior directed toward UCAR employees or persons connected with UCAR, including, for example, vendors and funding agency staff.

The United States Government has adopted a zero tolerance policy regarding trafficking in persons. Therefore, UCAR, its employees and its subcontractors shall not engage in severe forms of trafficking in persons; procure commercial sex acts; or use forced labor in the performance of any federally funded work.

It is the duty and responsibility of every employee to be aware of and abide by UCAR policies, procedures and guidelines. It is also the responsibility of the employee to perform his/her duties to the best of his/her ability and to the standards as set forth in his/her position description, or as otherwise established.

Individuals found to have engaged in inappropriate behaviors are subject to disciplinary action up to and including termination.  Retaliation against a person who initiates a complaint or an inquiry about such behaviors is equally prohibited.

Employees who become aware of behaviors prohibited by UCAR’s policies and procedures are required to report such conduct to their supervisor or the Human Resources Department.

In cases where employees face imminent danger, they should remove themselves from the dangerous area and call for emergency assistance. The supervisor, the Human Resources Department and/or the Director of Safety and Site Services should be notified.  Upon receipt of such a report, an assessment team including representatives from Human Resources, Safety and Site Services, and the appropriate laboratory or program will be formed to evaluate the situation and formulate an appropriate response.

Termination Policy

Termination of employment with UCAR can arise from a variety of circumstances involving certain action on the part of the employee, UCAR or both. Therefore, termination of employment with UCAR may be voluntary or involuntary. The termination date is the last day worked.

Notice or severance pay are provided only for termination of employment due to a Reduction in Staff (RIS), or where otherwise specified by policy.

Terminating employees must return all UCAR property, settle all debts, and complete a Separation Notice.Terminated employees who return to work at UCAR within one year of their termination, and whose new appointment includes Paid Time Off (PTO), have their previous PTO accrual rates reinstated. Terminated employees who receive severance pay are eligible for rehire. Upon rehire by UCAR or any organization that succeeds UCAR in operating NCAR and/or any UCP program, a terminated employee must reimburse UCAR for the portion of severance pay that exceeds the actual break in service. An individual involuntarily terminated due to misconduct or unsatisfactory performance is normally not eligible for re-employment with UCAR.

Compensation and Benefits PolicyUCAR strives to provide a compensation and benefits program that is competitive with the labor market. To this end, and within the means of the organization, salary ranges are set at or above specified levels in the designated labor markets, with internal equity also taken into consideration.

UCAR’s benefits program is designed to help protect employees against significant financial losses due to sickness, disability, or death; to provide employees’ rest and renewal; and to provide a means for retirement savings.

UCAR administers this policy in accordance with the principles of equal employment opportunity. UCAR’s Board of Trustees approves annual salary range adjustments and merit budgets.

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