Antidiscrimination discrimination

Safety professionals should be aware that these antidiscrimination laws were often specifically focused on the workplace and are designed to keep the employer from making employment-related decisions that could disadvantage employees based on their race, sex, age, color, disability, or any of the other protected classes. Safety professionals should be aware that most issues of discrimination involve hiring, promotion, training, termination, demotion, layoffs, or other terms and conditions involved in the workplace, including safety issnes. 

In order to defend against a claim of discrimination under Title VII, safety professionals must possess a thorough and complete understanding of the claims process as identified by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Although many states permit employees to proceed directly to state court for claims of discrimination utilizing individual state antidiscrimination laws, many claims are initiated at the federal level with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. 

Safety professionals should also be aware of the time limitations in which an employee or applicant can file a charge of discrimination. On the federal level with the EEOC, the time limitation is 180 days from the last date of discrimination. However, safety professionals should be aware that under many state antidiscrimination laws, employees or applicants can be provided 300 days from the date of discrimination to file the charge of discrimination. Charges of discrimination that have exceeded the time limitations are usually discharged. 

The use of tests and other selection procedures can be a very effective means of determining which applicants or employees are most qualified for a particular job. However, use of these tools can violate the federal antidiscrimination laws if an employer intentionally uses them to discriminate based on race, color, sex, national origin, religion, disability, or age (40 or older). Use of tests and other selection procedures can also violate the federal antidiscrimination laws if they disproportionately exclude people in a particular group by race, sex, or another covered basis, unless the employer can justify the test or procedure under the law. 

Although we covered a broad spectrum of the major federal antidiscrimination laws earlier in this text, safety professionals should be aware that there are other federal laws and directives as well as state and local laws that prohibit discrimination and harassment in the workplace. These laws include, but are not limited to, the following ... 

Safety professionals should be aware that many of the state laws may vary in the protections afforded to applicants and anployees in the areas of discrimination and harassment. However, it should be noted that virtually every state possesses some type of antidiscrimination laws providing protections which parallel or exceed the protections afforded under the federal laws. 

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