Disability
It may be necessary to address concerns for an individual who has difficulty getting in and around the work facility as well as traveling as an essential work function. What are some accessibility accommodations a company can impose to make the workplace more considerate to disabled employees?
Some steps an employer can take to accommodate disabled employees include:
Modify the work site to make it handicap accessible
Provide accessible parking spaces with an easy path to an entrance with automatic doors and free of steps
Move the individual’s workstation closer to the materials, machinery, and rooms they use frequently
Provide restrooms that are easily accessed from the individuals workstation
Review emergency evacuation procedures
In North West Rural Elec. Cooperative, the employee was an electric utility lineman who went on a Facebook forum for line workers and made comments critical of overall industry safety practices. These comments apparently upset several of his co-workers who reported them to management. The employer terminated the plaintiff, citing policies that prohibit rude behavior or conduct not in the best interests of the company. He then filed a NLRA complaint, claiming that the termination violated his right to engage in concerted activity. Will the employee win his case?
Under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) the employee is considered to be protected because his comment was related to working conditions. Therefore, the employer is in fault for wrongfully terminating the employee for their Facebook comments regarding safe work practices after their co-workers complained about the substance of the comments.
An employer was hiring employees after a strike. On the employment applications, the employer asked potential employees whether they belonged to an union. Do you believe that this employer is engaged in an unfair labor practice?
Yes, the employer is engaging in unfair labor practices. Because it is a unlawfully interrogated and solicited; on page 752 of the textbook, exhibit 15.8 " employer can't ask about union meetings or union activities" and " employer cannot terminate,discipline, transfer, or reassign union supporters to less desirable shifts, duties, or locations without some legitimate business cause other than their union support".
Tommy Morgan was a 20 year employee of New York Life Insurance Company. At age 52, his career at New York Life Insurance included a promotion, high marks for job performance, and a good reputation among his colleagues. One co-worker described Morgan as the best managing partner he had seen in 40 years. In September, 2005, the company sent out an email announcing a “new generation of managers”. Within three weeks of that email, Morgan was fired. He sued New York Life for age discrimination. Does he have any basis for age discrimination? Would the situation be different if the employer said that Morgan was no longer compatible with the company’s corporate culture?
Morgan qualifies for age discrimination on the basis of:
He is in a protected class
His employer discharged him
He was qualified for the position
A substantially younger person replaced him
Not a valid reason to fire due to his qualifications under the age discrimination laws.
A delivery company required that that all drivers pass a federally mandated hearing test. The federal mandate test only applied to those who drove trucks weighing over 10,000 pounds, but the company applied it to all drivers. Is this discrimination towards hearing-impaired individuals reasonable? What must the company prove for the hearing standard to pass regulations.
The qualification standard is job related
The standard is consistent with business necessity
Performance can not be accomplished by reasonable accommodation
An employer terminates an employee after she is diagnosed with cancer because they know the employee will need to miss a significant amount of time at work while going through surgical procedures, chemotherapy, and recovery. Is there an issue?
Yes, an issue is present. Before terminating the employee, the company needs to find ways of reasonably accommodating their health conditions. Some of these accommodations may include providing flexible leave for health problems, provide a self-paced workload with flexible hours, allow the employee to work from home, provide a part-time work schedule, or allow the employee to make up time they missed while absent. The accommodation taken will vary by individual and job requirements.
Brad Fair, who worked for a Boston-area hotel restaurant, was shocked to discover that his employer had installed hidden cameras in the men’s locker room, videotaping employees as they dressed and undressed before and after their shifts. Management claimed they suspected that employees were using and selling drugs, but nothing illegal was ever discovered.
Should Brad’s employer be allowed to monitor the men’s locker room on suspicions of employees using and selling drugs and to what extent is it considered acceptable?
His employer should not be allowed to use surveillance in the locker room due to the fact that the locker room is a highly private area and a clear invasion of privacy.
It is considered acceptable when the monitoring is limited in the workplace, the employees are given full access to any information gathered, when only information relevant to the job is collected, and when the monitoring results in the attainment of some business interest.
A tooling design and manufacturing company management heard that employees were complaining about the working conditions and thinking about unionizing. In hope to stop the unionization they posted a message on the break room bulletin board warning the employees of termination if found to be sympathetic to the union. What is wrong with what the employer is doing? Is this strategy/ behavior effective in discouraging the employees from unionization?
The employer is trying to limit the employees’ rights from section 7 of the national labor relation act (NLRA). Employer are not permitted to interfere in anyway with the employees’ efforts to form a union. Employees’ do not need approval from employer to form a union because it is a supervise election by the NLRB.
Allstate Insurance Company established a corporate restructuring pan in which it fired employee agents, then rehired them either one year after they were fired or at the end of the severance they received, whichever was long. Statistical evidence showed that, of the 6000 employees affected by the policy, 90 percent were older than 40 and that the over 40 group constituted only 23 percent of Allstate’s total workforce. What type of disparate does this policy create? (impact or treatment?) What type of violation has occurred?
Disparate impact has occurred. Older employees were treated differently because being a part of a protected class. There was no intention of discrimination, and the policy created was facially neutral. Reductions in force could be considered, in which age discrimination can be applied.
An employee sues his employer on the claims of discrimination based on religious and national origin discrimination. This employee was terminated for the refusal to remove or cover his confederate flag symbols, which he stated was part of his confederate southern American Christian beliefs. Do you believe he has a case, why or why not?
No, he does not have a case because confederate southern American is not a real religion and he also could not prove that his national origin was anything other than American. This employee also failed to state a prima facie case for national origin discrimination under Title VII. Three evident that needed to be establish:
- “Confederate Southern-American” is a protected national origin classification.
- He was qualified to perform his job.
- He was fired under circumstances that give rise to an inference of unlawful discrimination.
I agree with the District Court that Storey failed to satisfy the first prong because “Confederate Southern-American” is not a legitimate national origin classification for Title VII purposes.
A nurse who suffers from poliomyelitis was having difficulty executing portions of her job that require heavy lifting because of her condition. The hospital accommodated her disability by placing a weight limit on what she had to pick up and when this was still too difficult, she was reassigned to a position answering phones, which did not require and walking or heavy lifting. With a master’s degree and 16 years of nursing experience, the nurse was unhappy with the transfer. Did the hospital do enough to accommodate the nurse’s disability?
The employee should never have been transferred because heavy lifting is not one of the essential functions of being a nurse and she is otherwise qualified. The hospital needs to make any modification to a job process that enables a qualified individual with a disability to perform the essential functions of that position that will not impose undue hardship on the company.
A few employees for a catering company felt like their management was engaged in a pattern of disrespectful behavior towards them after the catering company manager made threats to them stating that he could penalize or discharge them for union activities. An employee, named Hernan Perez, who was upset at his supervisor, Bob McSweeney, for talking to him in a “harsh tone” and telling him to “stop chit chatting” and “move, move” during a catering event in a way that seemed demeaning. Forty-five minutes later, during an authorized break from work, Perez used his smartphone to post the following message about McSweeney to his Facebook page:
Bob is such a NASTY MOTHERF___ER don’t know how to talk to
people!!!!!! F__k his mother and his entire f__king family!!!!
What a LOSER!!!! Vote YES for the UNION!!!!!!
After the company was made aware of this offensive post they terminated Perez. Is the catering company legally able to terminate Perez for his statement on Facebook?
The catering company is not legally able to terminate Perez for his statement on Facebook because the NLRA prohibits employer from discharging an employee for concerted activities and union related activity. However, the termination can be considered legal if the catering company has a social media policy that restricts their employees from expressing their feelings about the company.
The diamond walnut grower sued the national labor relation board (NLRB) in retaliation to complaints from the union about workers job status pre and post-strike. After a violent strike an employer refused to hire employees back to their prior positions. They were given less status as seasonal packing position. The employees believe that it is retaliation for striking; however, the employer stated that he wanted to avoid instigation of violence from replacement employees and returning employees. Is it an obligation for an employer to give employees back their prestrike positions if there is a possibility of violence? If you agree or disagree, how do you think this case would turn out?
Yes, because section 7 of the NLRA states that “Employees shall have the right. . . to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection.” The employees have legal right to strike. In this case, Diamond walnuts grower would lose due to the display of unfair labor practices by filing the suit against the union and not giving the employees their pre-strike positions.
A Texas Roadhouse chain in Massachusetts was found to be following certain business hiring practices. Applicants to front of house positions at the restaurant chain, found they were being denied employment. The positions that the applicants were being denied included servers, hosts, server assistants, and bartenders. All of the applicants that were denied were of 40 years or older. Texas Roadhouse was found guilty by the EEOC and required to pay $12 million in settlement. What would you recommend that Texas Roadhouse do after this case has been settled?
It would be recommended that Texas Roadhouse implement different hiring and recruiting practices. The EEOC recommends hiring a diversity director to help lead the company in proper hiring practices. Also creating programs that educate employees on their rights in the workplace.