DISCRIMINATION

Auto loan discrimination

A judge has ordered the two sides in a lawsuit that claimed a lending affiliate of the Ford Motor Co. discriminated against black customers by charging them higher rates on car loans to enter into mediation after they failed to reach a settlement on their own.

Wal-Mart
A federal judge allowed a sex discrimination suit against retail powerhouse Wal-Mart to go forward as a class action, the biggest such case in US history June 2004.

 The case covers about 1.6 million women, including current and former employees at Wal-Mart, which is the largest private employer in the United States and world's biggest retail company

 "present largely uncontested descriptive statistics which show that women working at Wal-Mart stores are paid less than men in every region, that pay disparities exist in most job categories, that the salary gap widens over time, that women take longer to enter management positions, and that the higher one looks in the organization the lower the percentage of women." Wal-Mart employs more than 1.2 million employees in the United States, two-thirds of whom are women.

 "Certification of this class shows that no employer, not even the world's largest employer, is above the law. This decision sets the stage for women at Wal-Mart to get their fair share of pay and promotions which have been denied them for years."

Morgan Stanley May Face SexDiscrimination Suit

Executives of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter expect the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to file a sex discrimination suit against it July, 2004 against claims it denied women promotions, allowed sexual groping, office strip shows and other forms of sexual discrimination.

 Wall Street brokerage Morgan Stanley on Monday settled a sex discrimination suit brought by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for $54 million. In its lawsuit, the EEOC alleged a pattern of discrimination that denied scores of women promotions and gave higher salaries to less productive men.

 Deep-pocketed Wall Street firms have rarely been brought to trial for sexual discrimination and the suit marks the first such case against a brokerage brought to trial by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

 The commission has been investigating the treatment of women working in Morgan Stanley's investment bank for two years, since Allison K. Schieffelin, a former convertible bond sales representative, complained that she had been underpaid, excluded from outings with clients and denied a promotion because of her sex.

 Discrimination lawyers say the suit shows the securities industry, despite a flood of negative publicity, still lags in the field of gender equality. "Wall Street still believes that women are inferior, that men are better, more competent ... more interested in advancing their careers," said Linda Friedman, a Chicago lawyer specializing in discrimination. "They have made strides, but there is still an enormous amount of work to be done."

Age Discrimination
Federal law protects workers over 40 from outright discrimination based on age. Under a 1967 antidiscrimination law, a 55-year-old waitress might have a strong case if she could show that she was sacked purely because the boss wanted to hire someone 30 years younger

 The Age Discrimination in Employment Act,passed in 1967, protects workers 40 and older by prohibiting age discrimination such as firing an older worker, refusing to promote him or cutting his pay solely because of age, or refusing to hire him in the first place

What Is Job Discrimination?

Age Discrimination Disability Discrimination Disability & Workers' Comp Racial Discrimination Sexual Orientation National Origin Discrimination Pregnancy Discrimination Gender or Sex Discrimination Glass Ceiling

Discrimination: Legal Overview

When making employment decisions some employers have discriminated against individuals on the basis of stereotypes or assumptions about the abilities, traits or performance of individuals of a certain sex, race, age, religion or ethnic group, or individuals with disabilities.

 Starting in the 1960s, Congress passed a number of laws designed to eradicate discrimination and created "protected classes." Under the various anti-discrimination laws, employers cannot take factors such as race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age or disabilities into account when making employment decisions.

Federal anti-discrimination law is covered under five different statutes:

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) prevents discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin.

 The Equal Pay Act (EPA) ensures women and men who perform equal work get equal pay.

 The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) prevents discrimination against individuals aged 40 or older.

 The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prevents discrimination against individuals with disabilities and requires employers to make reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities.

 Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prevents discrimination against qualified individuals with disabilities who work for the federal government. It has been amended to mirror the ADA.

 Under Title VII, the ADA and the ADEA, it is illegal to discriminate in any aspect of employment, including: hiring and firing employee classification transfer, promotion, layoff or recall job advertisements

recruitment testing use of company facilities training and apprenticeship programs fringe benefits (e.g., health insurance, vacation, etc.)

 pay, retirement plans and disability leave other terms and conditions of employment

Discriminatory practices under these laws also include:

harassment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability or age; retaliation against an individual for filing a charge of discrimination, participating in an investigation, or opposing discriminatory practices;

 employment decisions based on stereotypes or assumptions about the abilities, traits or performance of individuals of a certain sex, race, age, religion or ethnic group, or individuals with disabilities;

 denying employment opportunities to a person because of marriage to, or association with, an individual of a particular race, religion or ethnic group, or an individual with a disability; and

 discrimination based on an individual's participation in schools or places of worship associated with a particular racial, ethnic or religious group.

 There are some circumstances where employers may legally prefer one national origin, religion, age or sex to another. These are called "bona fide occupational qualifications." They are allowed when there is a legitimate business reason to hire one type of person over another. For example, a Baptist church can refuse to hire a minister who is not Baptist because being Baptist is a "bona fide occupational qualification" for the position

Discrimination Occurs when

1-whether the decision is a function of an employees or job applicants membership in a certain group, rather than individual merit.

 2-whether the decision is based on the assumption that the group is in some way inferior and thus deserving of unequal treatment.

 3- whether the decision in some way harms those it aims at.

Examples
A company policy dictates that women not be placed in supervisory positions because The boys in the company dont like to take orders from females.

 An employment agency was charged with screening out African Americans, Latinos, older workers at the request of their corporate clients

 The FBI routinely transferred its Hispanic agents around the country on temporary low level assignments where knowledge of Spanish was needed; the agents functioned merely as assistants to non-Hispanic colleagues- I.e translators

 Hispanic agents dubbed this as the taco circuit and claimed that it adversely affected their opportunity for promotion.
A Federal judge agreed with them.

 Male managers assume against female workers Women place family demands above work considerations They lack the the necessary drive to succeed in business They take negative feedback personally rather than professionally They are too emotional to be a good manager

 When men come in as new engineers into a job, they are assumed competent until proved otherwise When women come in , they are assumed to be incompetent until they have proved over and over again that they are not.

Cost of Discrimination
Despite laws prohibiting employment discrimination, the economic costs of unequal treatment accorded African-Americans has risen steadily. But such discrimination doesn't hurt only blacks. in 1991, racial bias deprived the American economy of about $215 billion and was equal to roughly 3.8% of gross domestic product (GDP). While part of the loss can be traced to the lag in black educational achievement, the bulk is related to bias that hampers access to higher-paying jobs.

 Moreover, the slow rate of blacks entering managerial, professional and technical positions - and the economic cost to the nation - will probably narrow only slightly this decade. Applying a modification of a Census Bureau technique, I have updated the estimates of discrimination's economic cost (see chart). The figures show that over the last 25 years or so, the American economy has lost between 1.5% and 2.2% of GDP because racism limits the full use of black educational attainment in 1967, this loss amounted to $12.1 billion, or 1.5% of GDP. Another $11.1 billion, or 1.4% of GDP, was lost because of the failure to improve and fully use the educational level of African-Americans. In combination, lost GDP amounted to $23.2 billion, or 2.9% of the $814.3 billion total. By 1991, the GDP shortfall was $122.5 billion. Failure to improve the black education level cost $92.5 billion, or 1.6% of GDP. This totaled 3.8% of GDP, or $215 billion.