Employment discrimination is a matter that principals and managers at every level in American companies must pay utmost – and constant – attention to. It is a topic of top-tier concern that employers must elevate to the height of importance. Failure to so do can spawn penalties of real magnitude and also materially harm a company’s reputation and management-worker relations.
American workers have fought hard for on-the-job protections for decades, receiving a seismic boost from the enactment of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VII of that legislation enumerated a number of “protected” workplace classifications against which an employer’s discriminatory conduct is flatly taboo.
Those categorizations have been expanded in subsequent years. They now centrally encompass matters ranging from age, race, religion and gender to national origin, sexual identity, age and pregnancy.
Moreover, there is this: As noted in an in-depth online overview of employment discrimination, federal protections have been augmented over the years by additional safeguards authored at state and municipal levels.
The bottom line for employers of every stripe is this: There is no allowance whatsoever for workplace behaviors that discriminate against any individual or select group of employees.
Company decision-makers understandably have questions or concerns occasionally regarding what comprises unlawful behavior or what types of programs/initiatives can be proactively pursued to foster an inclusive and legal workplace environment.
They can turn to a proven team of employment law attorneys for help on such matters.
