Exam 16: Employment Discrimination

Because of past racial discrimination, senior employees at a plant are all white. The junior workers are racially mixed. A reduction in business forces the firm to fire half its workers. To protect the racial composition of the workers, the company will lay off white older workers. This policy is likely to be viewed by the courts as:

If an employer uses a decision rule that causes discrimination in some aspect of employment based on protected class status, but the discrimination was unintentional, the discrimination is called:

In Harris v. Forklift Systems, Harris sued her employer after her boss sexually insulted her and she quit. The Supreme Court held that she had a duty to complain about the behavior and have it possibly resolved before she quit.

Sex, religion and national origin, but not race, can be a:

In EEOC v. Dial Corp., where an employer used a test of strength to screen job applicants for ability to do the job, the appeals court held that the test was a non-discriminatory way to select employees that happened to be hard for women to pass.

It is NOT illegal, under the Americans with Disabilities Act, to ask a potential employee which of the following questions:

____ involve employment practices that appear to be neutral on their face but in fact have a disproportionately adverse impact on an employee or group of employees who are members of a protected class.

Ms. Yu only hires Chinese men and women to work at her Chinese restaurant. She believes that customers prefer to be served by Chinese. Lisa Freeman (not Chinese) applies to work at the restaurant and is rejected. Yu's actions may be illegal:

In EEOC v. Dial Corp. the EEOC found that the strength test used by Dial did not meet the business necessity defense as it was not related to job performance.

Japan's first sexual harassment case:

Verbal comments that happen to be of a sexual nature do not constitute sexual harassment because it is speech protected by the First Amendment.

Which of the following are examples of illegal discrimination under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act?

When employers have been sued for monitoring the content of their employees' e-mails at work, the court have generally held that the monitoring:

You would expect that it would be illegal for an employer to have an education requirement, such as a high school diploma, unless there could be shown to be a business necessity behind the requirement.

One of the main purposes of an affirmative action program is:

Title VII provides equal employment opportunity protection for people who are members of "protected classes."

Employers may put in place a "flexible" affirmative action program.

If the EEOC investigates a discrimination claim and finds no reasonable cause:

The Supreme Court has ruled that being left-handed is a "disability" that is covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Employers may discriminate against persons over the age of 40, if there is a bona fide occupational qualification for a certain job that makes performance difficult for older people.