Essay on Legal Implication in Human Resources
The discrimination of employees is legally forbidden. In this regard, it is possible to refer to Americans with Disabilities Act, Equal Employment Opportunities Act and other laws, which aim at the provision of employees with equal opportunities and prevent discrimination of employees. At the same time, often employees still face the discrimination and suffer from the oppression of their traditional lifestyle, observe their traditions and cultural norms. In such a way, employees need the effective protection and they can refer to existing legal norms to protect them from discrimination. In this regard, the discrimination of employees on the religious ground is one of the most controversial issues because often employees face discrimination, while employers are just unaware of restricting rights of their employees or discriminating them.
At this point, it is possible to refer to the discrimination in the field of religion. Basically, employees have their religious beliefs, traditions and norms, which they may be eager to follow. However, employers may be unaware of religious norms and traditions of their employees that may lead to the discrimination of employees on the religious ground. In this regard, the law forbids discrimination when it comes to any aspect of employment, including hiring, firing, pay, job assignments, promotions, layoff, training, fringe benefits, and any other term or condition of employment (Acton, 2007). Therefore, employees cannot be discriminated on the ground of their religious beliefs and traditions.
Existing legislation focuses on the protection of rights of employees and prevents their discrimination by employers. At the same time, employers should be aware of religious norms and beliefs of their employees to protect them from discrimination and to avoid law suits filed by their employees in case of their discrimination. In this regard, employees have certain expectations in regard to the protection of their rights and prevention of discrimination on the ground of their religious beliefs and traditions.
In fact, the existing legislation implies that employees can expect the respect to their religious beliefs and norms. For instance, employees may have a day off to celebrate their religious holidays or some employees may have specific days, when they cannot work, such as Saturday for Judaist. Therefore, employers should respect these cultural norms and traditions and to provide their employees with days off. At the same time, employees cannot exploit their religious beliefs and take days off whenever they want. Instead, employees should take a reasonable amount of days off to celebrate their religious holidays or other religiously significant days.
Furthermore, some employees may have specific clothes and traditions related to dress code or behavior. However, employers can expect the reliable work of their employees and to meet standards and norms accepted in their organizations. In this regard, employees should wear clothes respectively to their religious traditions reasonably taking into consideration the context of their workplace environment. For instance, when traditional clothes may be dangerous, employees should refuse from their traditional clothes in favor of clothes that employees should ware in the organization. At this point, it is possible to refer to the companies dealing with hazardous materials. Naturally, employees working in these companies will have to refuse from their traditional clothes, which may bear certain religious significance for them, if their clothes make their work insecure or simply dangerous for their health and the health of other people and dangerous for their environment.
At the same time, employees expect that they will not be discriminated on the ground of their disability. However, disability should be understood in terms of health problems but not as the lack of professional skills and abilities. For instance, if an individual got an injury, he/she cannot perform the functions, which he/she performed before the injury, but still the individual should be employed and work in the field, where he/she can perform his/her job properly. For instance, if an individual was a driver and got in a car accident and got injuries, the individual may be unable to work as a driver any more but the individual may count for a different job, such as consultant in the field of driving.
The discrimination is banned and employees’ rights are protected by laws and agencies that control the observation of laws, such as Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs and others. These agencies control and monitor policies conducted by employers in relation to employees. They also respond to complaints from the part of employees and impose sanctions on employers, who violated anti-discrimination laws.
Thus, existing legislation lays a solid ground for the protection of employees from their discrimination. However, the regulation of observation of anti-discrimination laws is conducted by federal agencies as well as by employers, who should respect existing laws and avoid discrimination of their employees.
