Workplace Law

Question 1

What is the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)?

Answer 1

Government agency created to enforce Title VII, prohibits employment discrimination.

Question 2

What is affirmative duty?

Answer 2

Employers have obligation “affirmative duty” to maintain workplace free of intimidation/harassment.

Question 3

What is the Reasonable Person Standard?

Answer 3

Judgements are made whether a reasonable similar person would have experienced a certain work environmental as hostile.

SCOTUS held that a reasonable person would need to find the environment hostile and the environment must be “both objectively and subjectively offensive”

Question 4

What happened in Harris v Forklift Systems?

Answer 4

Teresa Harris was sexually harassed by her boss at work with frequent sexist insults and sexual innuendos.

Lower courts said the harassment wasn’t bad enough because it didn’t cause serious psychological harm.

The Supreme Court ruled that a hostile work environment claim under Title VII does not require proof of psychological injury

Question 5

What are the two types of sexual discrimination in the workplace?

Answer 5

1. Disparate treatment based on sex
2. Sexual harassment
   – quid pro quo
   – hostile work environment

Question 6

What happened in Oncale v Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc?

Answer 6

Joseph Oncale, a male oil rig worker, was sexually harassed and threatened by male co-workers and supervisors.

Oncale reported the abuse, but supervisors did nothing; he eventually quit due to fear for his safety.

Lower courts dismissed his case, saying same-sex harassment wasn’t covered by Title VII.

SCOTUS ruled that same-sex harassment could be grounds for a lawsuit.

Also declared that gender-related jokes, teasing, and occasional use of offensive language do not qualify as illegal conduct.

Question 7

What is the totality of circumstances?

Answer 7

Tests whether the conduct in question created an unlawful hostile environment

Question 8

What are the two responsibilities of the employer?

Answer 8

1. To prevent harassment by establishing clear policies and training procedures
2. To correct harassment by thoroughly investigating complaints and taking disciplinary action against harassers

Question 9

What are arbitration agreements?

Answer 9

Agreements that force employers to settle disputes individually in a private court system instead of joining together with other employees who have similar experiences.

Question 10

What are the prerequisites for a case to go to trial?

Answer 10

*Usually only severe cases of harassment end up in court

1. Clearly harassing conduct
2. Plaintiff willing to endure strains of litigation
3. A lawyer willing to take on case
4. Witnesses who are willing to testify
5. Organization failed to prevent or correct illegal conduct

Question 11

What are the characteristics of a successful lawsuit?

Answer 11

1. Documents to support the claim
2. Victim told management before filing
3. Company failed to take action
4. Judge’s personal views

Question 12

What are the two distinct forms of coping with sexual harassment?

Answer 12

1. Internal– involves attempts to manage cognitive and emotional reactions to the harassment
2. External focused coping: practical efforts to manage or modify the harassing environment.

Question 13

What is the LSH scale?

Answer 13

Likelihood to harass scale. More masculine, more need to dominate women.

Local norms– if managers were perceived as tolerant

Question 14

What is OTSH?

Answer 14

Organizational tolerance for sexual harassment

Question 15

What are the recommendations for reducing the incidence of workplace harassment? (per Susan Fiske and Peter Glick)

Answer 15

1. Making clear that sexual joking are inappropriate in a professional setting
2. Eliminating sexually explicit materials in workplace
3. Taking steps to make sure recruiting and promotion are gender neutral

Question 16

What are the 4 broad categories of discrimination employers can be held liable for?

Answer 16

1. Hostile workplace environment
2. Disparate treatment
3. Adverse impact
4. Failure to provide reasonable accommodation for disability or religious expression

Question 17

What is disparate treatment?

Answer 17

When an employer treats some workers less favorably

Question 18

What is adverse impact?

Answer 18

When employment practices may not look discriminatory on the surface have a clear effect of discriminating against a particular group.

Question 19

What are the religious based discrimination needs?

Answer 19

1. Sincerely held
2. Employer must be made aware of conflict
3. Employee must suffer some adverse effect if employer refused a reasonable accommodation

Question 20

How to initiate a lawsuit for discrimination?

Answer 20

Suffer some form of injury because of company’s conduct and to prevail at trial, an employee must show the company’s action or failure to act

Question 21

What are the four conditions essential to reducing stereotypes and prejudice?

Answer 21

1. Equal status contact between groups
2. Promote one on one interactions
3. Foster cooperation
4. Equal treatment social norms

Question 22

What is the Psychology of Perceived Fairness?

Answer 22

1. Distributive justice: how available rewards are distributed among members
2. Procedural justice: how procedures and rules are used to allocate rewards
3. Interactional justice: how people are treated and respected after awards are given

Question 23

What happened in Price Waterhouse v Hopkins?

Answer 23

Ann Hopkins was denied partnership at Price Waterhouse after being told to act and dress “more femininely.”

She sued, claiming sex discrimination based on gender stereotypes.

The Supreme Court ruled that employment decisions based on sex stereotyping violate Title VII.

Established that if discrimination was a motivating factor, the employer must prove it would have made the same decision anyway to avoid liability.

Landmark case is establishing sex stereotyping was illegal.