Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Municipalities – Questions 7
Question for Matt S, Courtney T and Erica W. Suppose you are a personnel manager for a medium sized city in South Carolina. Describe some of the federal and state rules and laws that will affect your handling of city employees. Make sure you include in your discussion the idea of “employment-at-will.”
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4 comments:
When hiring or working with people in any job there are several law one must follow. Employers must not discriminate against race or sex (Civil Rights Act). There were some amendments that called for no discrimination against color religion, origin, or sex. There are also federal laws that are working for equal pay of men and women. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act made it so that employers can not discriminate against individuals over the age of forty. Individuals with disabilities are not to be discriminated against either and those who need more time for a leave of absence of work are to be given that time as well. If an employer is discriminating against an employee, the individual has the right granted to him by the Civil Rights Act of 1871, section 1983 says that individuals can sue the local government for violating infractions of the law. In South Carolina it used to be that employers could end an employees term at work for any reason, good, bad, or indifferent. That is what is known as employment-at-will. This however has changed since the South Carolina Supreme Court has made it so that employers must have handbooks for their employees so they know the boundaries of their work and it sets forth rules for the employer that he must follow in order to discipline an employee. Overall, it is difficult to follow all the rules in the working world to avoid being sued for discrimination. There are so many ways one can find a reason to sue for discrimination.
Matt Spivey
Being an employer I would have to abide by several laws in handling my employees. The first is employment at will which means that I can hire or fire any person I want for any reason at all, prohibited by law. Affirmative Action- although it is not a law, it is an executive order signed by Lyndon B Johnson, it says that companies should seek out and hire QUALIFIED members of a protected class. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 title VII prohibits me from discriminating on the basis of race, gender, or religion. The American Disabilities Act 1990 prohibits me from discriminating on the basis of a mental or physical disability. This poses some problems for employers because there is a lot of ambiguity as to mental and or physical problems. The Age Discrimination Act of 1967 prohibits me from discriminating on the basis of age. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 prohibits me from offering different for the SAME job on the basis on gender. There have also been several Supreme Court cases that designate how I am to hire and to ensure that I don’t discriminate. One is Griggs vs. Duke Power 1971- the precedent from that case was that I must validate any criteria used to hire or promote someone, prima facia was enough, and adverse impact. In order to validate the criteria as per ordered from the Supreme Court I must: 1. give them the job, 2. give them the test to validate, 3. put them to work, 4. I must evaluate them. Some companies tried to get creative as to what “criteria” is so as a result from EEOC vs. Detroit Edison any test used, interview, speech test, etc… is considered a criteria and therefore must be validated. Since Antonio vs. Wardcove Packing Company, prima facia is no longer enough to sue for discrimination. Prima facia meaning on its face does it look like discrimination. Since that case employers must adequately prove that they are being discriminated against.
Erica Wilson Armour
Managing people has become more complicated partly due to state and federal laws as well as court decisions dealing with employment issues. If I had to be a personnel manager for a city in South Carolina I would be affected by laws such as: Civil Rights Act, which combats racial and sex discrimination, The Age Discrimination in Employment Act, which deals with age discrimination of people over 40, The Rehabilitation Act, which deals with discrimination of the mentally/physically handicap. From the state level, South Carolina has been considered an employment-at will state,which simply means that an employer can fire someone for good or bad reasons. This has been amended by the Springs case, which said that employee handbooks could constiute a contract between the employee and emplyer before termination. There are several other laws and regulations that employers must be aware of today. The one's that I discussed are typically the one's we hear about most often. Since this area is so complex, employers must be aware of their employees' rights. Although rules have been set in place, there are still tremendous amounts against people especially convicted felons, older people, and of course, women!
All three covered it well, and Erica went beyond the text and added some of the criteria that employers must worry about in using tests for hiring and promotion. Basically, South Carolina is an employment at will state in which most of the power to hire and fire is given to the employer, including governments. However, many federal laws and rulings (mentioned by the students) trump that rule, as does anything governments put in their employee handbooks.
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