Investigate and Resolve Discrimination Claims
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was enacted to eliminate deeply entrenched patterns of employment discrimination against individuals because of their race, color, sex, religion, and national origin. Three year later, age discrimination was prohibited with the passing of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967. It took another 23 years for individuals with disabilities to be protected by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
Since that time, many states have enacted their own laws prohibiting discrimination based on the federal protections, as well as, additional protections such as sexual orientation, marital status, political affiliation, matriculation, etc. Forty-four years since the first laws recognizing and prohibiting discrimination it is evident that discriminatory employment practices have become more subtle and more difficult to identify and correct.
When you receive an informal employee complaint or a formal charge of discrimination, it is critical that you immediately develop a strategy for conducting an investigation. You also want to advise the management team to treat the complainant fairly and objectively to avoid any retaliation claims.
Workplace Dynamics can take on several roles to assist you in handling complaints or formal charges of discrimination. We can advise you and direct your internal investigation or we can conduct a full investigation of the facts and allegations. Since we have prior experience working for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, we know what it takes to defend a formal charge of discrimination and how to prepare your company’s position statement.
METRICS
"The unemployment ate for persons age 55 years and older has increased significantly since the beginning of the recession. Although the rate of unemployment among older workers is lower than that for their younger counterparts, older person who do become unemployed spend more time searching for work."
Selected labor force measures, by age, February 2010, not seasonally adjusted.
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Characteristic
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Total, 16 years and older
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16 to 24 years
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25 to 54 years
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55 years and older
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Total unemployed (in thousands)
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15,991
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3,888
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9,843
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2,260
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Percentage unemployed 27 weeks or longer
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39.3
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28.5
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41.3
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49.1
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Median number of weeks unemployed
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19.6
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14.4
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20.6
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26.7
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Average number of weeks unemployed
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29.3
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23.3
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30.3
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35.5
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Source: Division of Labor Statistics, Office of Employment and Unemployment Statistics, Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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Ask Yourself
Does discrimination still occur in 2010? That's a hard question to answer; however, we know that many people feel that they are a victim of discrimination. For FY 2009, there were 93,277 charges filed with the EEOC.
Monetary resolutions during the same period totaled $294.2 million, not including $82.1 million in monetary relief from litigation.
In FY 2009, the majority of the charges were filed based on race (36%), retaliation (36%), gender (30%), age (24.4%), and disability (23%).
Let's work together to make sure that your organization does not become part of these statistics!
Legal Case Settlements
March 2010– EEOC resolved a lawsuit against Les Schwab Tire Centers for $2,000,000 for failing to hire qualified women for sales and service (tire changing) positions in stores in seven states.
March 2010 - To resolve a lawsuit filed by the EEOC, Kmart Corporation will pay $120,000 and other relief to settle an age harassment, constructive discharge and retaliation case against a 70 year old pharmacist at a store in Honolulu. The pharmacy manager on several occasions told the pharmacist that she was "too old", "should just retire," andwas "greedy" for continue to work at age 70, among other humiliating comments. The manager also purposely scheduled her to work on Sundays even though he knew that she attended church those days - to encourage her to quit. The victim complained to the district manager, general manager and the human resources manager to no avail.
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