Processing of discrimination charges by EEOC

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is the principal enforcement agency for equal employment law. Created by Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the Commission won considerable influence over personnel management through favorable opinions in court cases. Moreover, the 1972 amendments to Title VII granted additional enforcement powers to the Commission. Yet there is little readily available information on how the Commission has exercised these powers. This article examines EEOC's procedure for handling charges of discrimination. It then presents statistics that indicate some of the problems EEOC has had in managing its growing work load. Finally, it discusses how such problems impede the fair and effective enforcement of equal employment law.     

Employer and employee obligations and rights under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act

As more Reserve and National Guard troops are called to leave the civilian workforce and enter military service, employers must understand the legal rights those service members possess and the employers’ legal obligations that are now required under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA). Current data and litigation trends suggest many employers are not fully aware of their legal obligations under USERRA and the punishing legal liability they may face. USERRA applies to virtually all employers, and the law uniquely provides for both corporate and individual liability for discriminating against employees or applicants because of military service. This article provides an overview of USERRA from the perspective of employers, employees, and potential employees. Practical advice is rendered herein not only for those covered by the Act, but also for employers regarding adherence to this law while avoiding liability under USERRA.     

Gender Discrimination in Chinese Recruitment Advertisements: A Content Analysis

Sex-role stereotypes exist as a primary source of gender inequality in employment. This issue becomes even more salient in the social context of China, where the traditional view of female inferiority persists and the legal system provides inadequate protection of equal employment rights. Reporting a content analysis of Chinese recruitment advertisements, this article concludes that gender discrimination is practiced by Chinese employers in recruiting for white-collar positions. It also finds that female applicants are more likely to encounter other forms of discrimination such as age and physical appearance requirements as well.     

Theory to practice: HIV/AIDS policies in operation within British retailing

Despite recent scientific advancements, Human Immune Deficiency Virus (HIV)/ Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) remains a serious health issue for those involved in employee management. The introduction of the Disability Discrimination Act (1995) has meant that increased numbers of HIV/AIDS infected workers are able to remain in employment, fully protected by this legislation. Because of the nature and characteristics of retail employment, it is suggested that retailers have an increased likelihood of encountering employees and/or customers with the disease, compared with most other industries. This paper examines one particular aspect of the challenge facing retailers, notably that of the ‘operationalization’ of their HIV/AIDS policies into practices, especially in terms of company selection rocesses, education and training, employee relations and employee assistance programmes. Data were collected from a number of leading retail companies, ¹ from which, important observations can be made with regard to retailers' attitudes towards employee welfare in general, and in relation to HIV/AIDS in particular. The research results indicate potential discrimination in terms of employee selection involving a significant number of major retailers, and little comprehensive education/training on HIV/AIDS occurring, despite evidence of disruptive behaviour by staff. In addition, the findings provide evidence that even major companies find it difficult to balance issues of employee welfare against the financial concerns of the organization, in terms of assisting affected employees.     

Discrimination and Well-Being in Organizations: Testing the Differential Power and Organizational Justice Theories of Workplace Aggression

People may be subjected to discrimination from a variety of sources in the workplace. In this study of mental health workers, we contrast four potential perpetrators of discrimination (managers, co-workers, patients, and visitors) to investigate whether the negative impact of discrimination on victims’ well-being will vary in strength depending on the relative power of the perpetrator. We further explore whether the negative impact of discrimination is at least partly explained by its effects on people’s sense of organizational justice, and whether the strength of mediation varies according to the source of discrimination. Using survey data from 1,733 UK mental health workers, a structural equation model was designed to test these hypotheses following a bootstrap approach. Discrimination from all sources was related to well-being, with that from managers having the strongest effects. The results support an explanation of the effect of discrimination on well-being in terms of organizational justice perceptions for discrimination from managers and from visitors, but less so for discrimination from co-workers or from patients. The study highlights the importance of differentiating amongst sources of discrimination at work and the salience of organizational justice perceptions in explaining the effects of discrimination from some sources.     

The determinants of employers’ use of temporary contracts in the frictional labor market

This paper focuses on the following two primary reasons that employers use temporary contracts: to flexibly adjust employment and to screen workers. A search-matching framework is used to not only address employers’ endogenous choices in using temporary contracts, but also numerically identify the situations in which these contracts are likely to be used as a screening tool for permanent positions. This numerical exercise demonstrates that reducing employment protections in permanent jobs, reducing benefits for unemployed workers and raising the conversion probability from temporary to permanent employment will increase the relative proportion of employers who use temporary contracts as a screening device.     

The New Employment Contract and the “At Risk” Worker

Employees of large blue chip corporations in the 1950s through the mid-1960s demonstrated great loyalty to their employers. In return, those employers provided cradle to grave job security and benefits for their workers. During the 1980s, however, this social contract between employees and employers seems to have undergone a change. The norms of the organization man of the earlier period passed from use and a new normative framework seems to have developed. The norm of loyalty on the part of both parties seems to have passed from practice. Employers would now terminate employees if it was in their short term interest to do so, while employees began to move from company to company, no longer making a career with one employer. Many writers have attributed this new employment relationship to the dynamics of the times, as we move from modern to late modern/early post-modern times. This paper reports the findings of a pilot qualitative study done with graduating seniors from an AACSB accredited business school (n=48). The subjects were asked to write self-reflective essays on the following themes: Given the nature of the new employment contract, are careers a vestige of the past? How do you feel about such concepts as career self reliance and career resiliency? Do you feel “at risk” in the new world of work? If so why, if not why not? If so, how do you plan to deal with it? The paper reports the critical response patterns of these graduating seniors and draws insights and conclusions from the literature illuminating the student reflections.     

Do Employers Comply with Civil/Human Rights Legislation? New Evidence from New Zealand Job Application Forms

This study assesses the extent to which job application forms violate the New Zealand Human Rights Act. The sample for the study includes 229 job application forms, collected from a variety of large and small, public- and private-sector organizations that together employ approximately 200,000 workers. Two hundred and four or 88% of the job application forms contain at least one violation of the Act. One hundred and sixty five or 72% contain two or more and 140 or 61% contain three or more violations. The most common violations concern age, gender, nationality, and disability. The least common concern political opinion, ethical belief, religious belief, and sexual orientation. Despite widespread violations, many forms do have non-discriminatory questions that yield the same kind of useful information as discriminatory questions. Employers could incorporate these into their job application forms to bring themselves into compliance with the law. The same lessons also generally apply to North American employers, given the high degree of comparability between American, Canadian, and New Zealand anti-discrimination laws.     

农民工就业歧视的经济学分析

劳动力市场就业歧视是一个世界性的问题,无论是发达国家还是发展中国家都不同程度地存在着这一问题。而农民工就业歧视是我国劳动力市场上特有的现象。本文结合国情,描述农民工就业歧视的种种表现,揭示农民工就业歧视的根源,分析农民工就业歧视对城市就业人口的就业影响,进而提出消除歧视的相应对策。     

Job dissatisfaction among retail employees: a study of three leading UK retailers

Despite the general awareness that working in retailing is unattractive to many workers, relatively little is known about which aspects of retailing are actually disliked, or how that varies across groups within the workforce, employers, or types of store. Initial analyses from an extensive survey of UK retail employees show that statistically significant variations exist in terms of dislike of retail employment and particular aspects of that employment. Exploratory factor analysis shows that while a general dimension of discontent is identifiable, there are also specific concerns, such as among more senior staff who are particularly concerned about long hours, and younger employees frustrated at a perceived lack of career progression. However, there is also a dimension of relative contentment with work circumstances among large numbers of female part-time workers and older staff.     

Employment in DIY Superstores

Employment patterns in food superstores have received much research attention in recent years. Employment in non-food superstores has, however, been inadequately researched. Anecdotal and visual evidence suggests that non-food superstores employ fewer staff, more males than females, and more full-time than part-time workers, in comparison with food superstores,. This article quantifies employment in DIY superstores as a basis for future research.     

Tarifpartnerschaft — ein altes,aber gefährdetes Bündnis?

100 years ago, in November 1918, the Stinnes Legien Agreement was drawn up between various employers’ associations and trade unions. It included collective bargaining autonomy and collective agreements, the eight-hour work day and work councils. It soon failed, but served as a model for the legal regulation of collective bargaining relations after the Second World War. In the meantime, however, collective bargaining has declined significantly. Many employers are members of their associations without a collective agreement. At the same time, union memberships are declining. In view of increasingly precarious forms of employment, the government apparently needs to implement stronger regulations on collective bargaining relations again, such as the Minimum Wage Act. Finally, a look back: In 1918, editorial member Alfred Schmidt-Essen commented on the agreement from a current perspective. We document the article.     

Recent trends in pregnancy discrimination law

In 1978, Congress passed the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) to protect the civil rights of motherhood in the workplace. Since then, the act's interpretation has been altered by various court decisions. These changes, along with more working women, make PDA compliance more complex. This challenge is reflected by a 39% increase in Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaints over the past decade, and a 66% increase in plaintiff victories during the same time period. These developments are discussed in this article, which attempts to help managerial decision making by exploring legal trends and their workplace implications.     

Does Stricter Employment Protection Legislation Promote Self-employment?

Using recently developed indicators of the strictness of employment protection legislation in OECD countries, the paper examines the issue of whether strict employment protection legislation may promote self-employment by encouraging employers to contract-out work to self-employed workers. Contrary to the results of previous studies, the paper finds little evidence for a positive relationship between self-employment and the strictness of EPL. While the raw data suggest that a positive relationship may indeed exist, once suitable control variables are introduced into the analysis, it appears that if anything, the opposite may be true: i.e. stricter employment protection legislation may actually reduce self-employment.     

农民工与城市职工的工资差异及其分解――人力资本与歧视的贡献

文章关注城市职工和农民工两个群体工资差异的大小和来源。利用CGSS2013数据和均值分解法,文章考察了人力资本和歧视的贡献。研究发现：在实现就业以后,两个群体的工资差异主要来自于特征差异,歧视并不是一个十分严重的问题;对农民工群体的歧视主要存在于就业实现的过程中,就业歧视解释了两个群体大约一半的工资差异;教育从特征差异、回报率差异、就业概率差异三个方面为工资差异做出了贡献;工作经验在工资决定中具有逆歧视作用。我们的研究意味着,要缩小两个群体的工资差异必须从缩小前市场差别开始,并通过促进市场竞争、明确歧视的实践标准、简化反歧视的诉讼程序等措施来减少就业歧视的贡献。     

Compulsory Arbitration in Nonunion Employee Relations: A Strategic Ethical Analysis

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the most recent public policy and ethical issues as they relate to the growing usage of nonunion employment arbitration particularly in relation to financial services firms and professional firms. In this era of increasing employment-related litigation, it is wise from an employer’s point of view to find alternative procedures that offer assurances of fairness yet provide expeditious means for resolving disputes. From an employee’s vantage point, however, it is essential that the fundamental issue of procedural and substantive due process be maintained and guaranteed. Therefore, a number of strategic ethical issues arise: How should employment arbitration procedures be designed following the Due Process Protocol of the Task Force on Alternative Dispute Resolution in Employment? How should arbitration procedures follow the national rules for the resolution of employment disputes of the American Arbitration Association? Do recent court decisions shed light on these issues? What ethical principles can be gleaned from these public policy pronouncements? A final objective of this paper is to study some of the current initiatives on this topic.     

Weight Discrimination in the American Workplace: Ethical Issues and Analysis

Research providing consistent evidence of pervasive discrimination against overweight job applicants and employees in the American workplace raises important questions for organizational stakeholders. To what extent is the disparate treatment of job applicants or employees based on their weight ethically justified? Are there aspects of weight discrimination that make it more acceptable than discrimination based on other characteristics, such as race or gender? What operational steps can employers take to address concerns regarding the ethical treatment of overweight individuals in the workplace? This article investigates these and related questions. Its purpose is to provide information and analysis that will assist organizations in formulating ethical responses to a widespread phenomenon: weight discrimination in the workplace. Although its focus is the American workplace, the proposed employer ethical obligations and the practical guidance that is provided are viewed as generalizing across countries and cultures.     

Does Contact Between Employees and Service Recipients Lead to Socially More Responsible Behaviours? The Case of Cleaning

Cleaning occupations, which in recent years have accounted for a not inconsiderable share of employment and job creation in France, are characterised by particularly bad working conditions and low pay. Is this situation inevitable? Are there not in fact mechanisms that might lead employers in the cleaning sector to adopt socially more responsible behaviours towards their employees? After all, the literature on corporate social responsibility suggests that the actions of consumers could be one of these mechanisms. The aim of our paper is to test the impact on job quality of contact between cleaning workers and service recipients. To this end, we analyse data from a survey carried out by the French Ministry of Labour and supplemented by interviews. Our results indicate that contact with service recipients does indeed have an influence.     

Automatic Enrollment and Its Relation to the Incidence and Distribution of DC Plan Contributions: Evidence from a National Survey of Older Workers

Automatic enrollment has been widely embraced for raising employee participation in 401(k) plans. However, the empirical evidence on the effect of automatic enrollment on plan contributions and retirement saving overall is still imperfect. Using nationally representative data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), we find that although automatic enrollment is associated with a higher proportion of workers participating in DC plans, automatically enrolled workers are less likely to contribute to their DC plans and contribute on average less than their voluntarily enrolled counterparts. In contrast, employers of auto‐enrolled workers on average contribute more to their employees' accounts than do the employers of voluntarily enrolled workers. Even so, the combined effect is that the total annual contribution rates of automatically enrolled older workers are 1.6 percentage points lower than those of voluntarily enrolled workers.     

中小企业雇佣危机管理——新生代农民工与“刘易斯转折点”对中小企业提出的挑战

在新生代农民工逐渐成为中小企业员工主体的背景下,"刘易斯转折点"的来临和新生代农民工的群体性特征对中小企业以往雇佣模式带来新的挑战。如若中小企业不能适应这种变化,在企业制度和运行机制方面进行相应调整,则将会形成雇佣危机。因此中小企业需构建基于雇佣外部环境变化的动态雇佣危机管理机制,以避免雇佣危机的发生。