GenderSex Discrimination

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Gender/Sex Discrimination

• Legal Presentation
• Porntip Riansuwan
• March 5, 2003
• Mgmt 610

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Presentation overview

• Title VII and the FEHA
• What is discrimination?
• What is prohibited?
• Case examples
• Sexual orientations
• Reverse discrimination
• Pros Cons
• Recommendations

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Title VII of the Civil Right Act of 1964

• Employment discriminating on the basis of sex
• Prohibitions against sex discrimination
  specifically cover
• Sexual harassment
• Pregnancy based discrimination
• Equal Pay Act
• Gender discrimination in pay and requires that
  men and women be compensated equally.

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California Fair Employment and Housing Act

• Effective on Jan 1, 2001
• Get employers to treat employees and job
  applicants as individuals, not as a member of
  group
• Prohibit discrimination
• Race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry,
  physical mental disabilities, medical
  condition, marital status, and sex.
• Bona fide occupational qualification exception
• U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
  (EEOC)

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What is discrimination?

• Sex-plus discrimination
• Discrimination based on gender with one or more
  other factors, e.g. sex-plus pregnancy, sex-plus
  marriage, sex-plus physical appearance, sex-plus
  age, etc.
• Physical Characteristics
• Hiring criteria based on physical characteristics
• Maternity and Pregnancy
• Pregnancy discrimination acts (Title VII)

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What is discrimination? (cont)

• Sexual Orientation
• Not Covered by Title VII
• California FEHA prohibits discrimination on the
  basis of sexual orientation
• Reverse Discrimination
• Members of one group claim that an effort to
  promote diversity in the workplace has a
  discriminatory impact.
• A claim by male workers

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What is prohibited?

• Terms and conditions of employment
• Position, pay, title, hours, vacations.
• Whether or not a person is hired
• Disparate Treatment
• Employees must establish that the employer makes
  an adverse decision against employees with
  respect to a condition of employment

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What is Prohibited? (cont)

• Disparate Impact
• Company policy excluded a certain individual from
  the job or from promotions.
• The policy is not designed to excluded the
  employees.
• The airlines minimum height requirement for
  flight attendants
• Examine any practice before assuming it will
  provide BFOQ or Business necessity.

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Case Examples

• Sexual orientation against female
• Kimberly Miller vs. Wal-Mart (Jun 19, 2001)
• Reverse Discrimination
• Mr. Carr vs. Jenny Craig Weight Loss Centers
  (July 22, 1999)
• Sexual Orientation against
• Sandy vs. Marinello School of Beauty (Aug 7, 2002)

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Pros and Cons

• Pros
• Denial opportunities unnecessarily for one sex or
  the other
• The refusal to hire an individual because of
• The preference of coworkers, employers, clients,
  etc.
• Stereotyped characterizations of sex

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Pros and Cons (cont)

• Cons
• Difficulties for the employers to issue new
  policy.
• Complaint has 1 year from the date of the alleged
  discrimination to file employer
• Time and cost consuming.

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Recommendation

• Recruiting
• Minimize recruiting through organization that is
  gender specifics
• Use gender-neutral terms in advertisements and
  postings
• Hiring
• Interview more than one applicant with more than
  one interviewer
• Review each proposed hire pre-offer, to spot
  possible discriminatory trends in job and salary
  offers

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Recommendation (cont)

• Employment relationship
• Implement a clear nondiscrimination policy
• Awareness and education program on discrimination
  issues
• Document all decisions and actions
• Termination
• Document all events
• Provide warning of contemplated termination, a
  performance problem, and the opportunity to
  correct or explain it
• Review each termination before it is finalized to
  spot any discrimination issues.

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Question?