law on racial discrimination in the workplaces

law on racial discrimination in the workplaces

Employment law is essential in every organization that has more than one employee. The rules help in shaping the employer-employee relationship by outlining the expectations of each party. The laws can either be made by both the federal and state. Either the employer or employee can sue in a court of law when one party breaks the law. The Civil Rights Act of 1964: Title VII prohibits discrimination on employees based on race, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, age, nationality and religious affiliation, among others. This paper discusses the law on racial discrimination in the workplaces.

This law prohibited discrimination based on the race of an individual. In the U.S, the native whites have in most cases found favour during recruitments, promotions, duty allocations and payments over other races in the U.S. For instance, and Brooks reports that only 3.2 per cent of blacks hold executive positions in the well-established organizations in the U.S. Out of that number, it is only 0.3 per cent which holds CEO positions. This is a clear indication that racial discrimination in the workplaces still exists in the U.S. To get promotions non-white employees to have to put more efforts than the white employees.

Employers should treat all employees equally regardless of their ethnicity. Some people have reported unequal treatment in the companies they work for because they belong to a particular race. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 states that all people regardless of race performing similar duties using similar skills, should receive the same payments. However, many organizations tend to be reluctant in ensuring there is equal pay across employees performing related tasks. In most cases, the whites are paid more than other races. In 1999, four African American employees working in the Coca-Cola Company filed a lawsuit with allegations that the company was discriminating blacks. According to the evidence provided, it was clear that blacks received a salary of a third of what the white employees were paid. They also raised issues like unequal chances to the promotion and unfair allocation of duties. In 2000, the company agreed to pay 192 million U.S dollars to settle the problem as well as revising its company policies following the discrimination law.

Racial discrimination is prevalent in the allocation of duties and employee handling in the workplaces. In many instances, a particular race is favoured and given easy tasks, while others are given challenging assignments. In other cases, people are denied certain rights while they are given to others. For instance, Jason Jessup and other black drivers sued UPS Company, claiming that the company was discriminating blacks in duty assignments and disciplining. Supported by other African American employees, he raised the issue of being denied sick leaves, which is against the civil laws in America. Other matters of racial discrimination were raised in the case.

These law cases and many others have helped strengthen the employment discrimination law. Although claims of racial employment discrimination are still available in the American organization, it has dramatically improved. Particularly in recruitment, many companies are enacted strategies which will increase the number of employees from discriminated races. Such policies include the compulsory recruitment of employees from individual ethnicities. Also, some companies have set out laws which severely punish managers or management that is found guilty of carrying discriminatory racial activities. Some have even taken actions to create awareness as well as educating its employees that discrimination is wrong. For instance, it is common to find posters in a company indicating that it is a discrimination-free company.

The case of Coca-Cola had a significant impact on the law because of the large amount that is paid to compensate for the situation. It acted as a precaution to many companies which were practising racial discrimination. As a result, they started ensuring there is no racial discrimination in their workplaces to avoid such expenditures. Even Coca-Cola altered its organizational laws to minimize the chances of such instances happening again.

There are circumstances in which this law cannot be applied. Sometimes, there are specifications which require particular races to perform specific jobs. However, it should be reasonable why the other tribes do not qualify to perform such duties. For instance, an organization dealing with Hispanic refugees might require recruiting an employee from a particular race. This is because the employee will best serve the needs of the refugees compared to other races. In such instances, this issue is not treated as discrimination.

Many advantages are associated with the law on discrimination. First, racial diversity in organizations promotes cooperation and unity among employees. There are minimal misunderstandings based on race in most companies which promote racial diversity. Most employees tend to misbehave and engage in indiscipline activities when they know they are protected through racial favouritism by the management. The unity fosters teamwork which is an essential aspect in every company to boost the production in any company. Also, racial diversity has also been associated with the promotion of innovation in many companies. Second, racial diversity in the workplace promotes employee satisfaction in the workplaces. Employee satisfaction is one of the critical factors that is linked to high production in an institution. When employees are treated without discrimination, they become devoted to a company to put all their efforts towards increasing productivity and revenue.

Nowadays, many companies are using racial diversity as a marketing strategy and customer attraction. It is easy for a person from a particular race to convince customers of the same race to buy their products. For instance, it would take less time for an African-American salesperson to convince African-American population to buy a particular outcome than for a white employee. Likewise, racial diversity is promoting the introduction of new products to serve the different races in America society. This is because different races have different culture and lifestyle. For instance, Pizza Hut, the top pizza chain in the U.S chain in the U.S introduced veggie pizza to accommodate the Hindi race because their culture does allow consumption of animal meat. As a result, incorporating Hindi employees in the company have an advantage to the company as it will help them make the best pizzas to serve this population. This also helps boost the revenues of the company as well as acceptability in the market.

Employees have the power to report cases of racial discrimination happening in their workplaces as it is illegal in reference to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 under Title discrimination. However, issues of racial discrimination are still prevalent in some companies, but no reports that have been made. Several factors contribute employees to fear to report the cases. First, some employees are the key providers in their families, and despite the discrimination issues, they are under constant fear of losing the jobs, which in turn would cause financial strains. Even some employers or managers go to the extent of threatening their employees for attempts of seeking legal aids in issues related to racial discrimination. Second, some employees are not aware of their rights on racial discrimination, and they take it normal for employers or management personnel to mistreat them. They also don’t know where to report or seek legal aids when they face issues of racial discrimination in the workplaces.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 clearly states that racial discrimination is illegal in workplaces in the U.S. Key racial discrimination in working places include mistreatment, unequal payment and unequal opportunities to promotion and compensation. Cases of racial discrimination have for long existed in American companies such as Coca-Cola and UPS, to mention a few. Human resource managers have a significant role in ensuring instances of discrimination do not occur in the workplace as it will promote unity among employees and employers, an innovation which will boost the productivity of the company.