Bus/358 Employment Discrimination Paper

S.H.Bus 358 – Business Law
23 February 2014Employment Discrimination Research Paper
Employment Law governs the rights and responsibilities of employers and employees in the workplace. Also referred to as labor law, these rules are designed to keep workers safe and make sure they are treated fairly, as well as to protect employers’ interests. The common law rules of employment created by courts and practiced in the seventeen and eighteen hundreds were that of at will employees, who could be fired for no reason at all. Employment laws in present day society have evolved to represent both employer and employee and are now based on federal and state statutes and legislation as well as court decisions. The evolution of these laws can be traced back to the United States Constitution, which provides protection against discrimination by federal and state governments. The Fifth Amendment prohibits the federal government from depriving individuals of "life, liberty, or property," without due process of the law and guarantees that each person receive equal protection of the laws. The Fourteenth Amendment prohibits states from violating an individual 's rights of due process and equal protection. Discrimination in the workplace is an integral
Disparate treatment requires the plaintiff to show that he/she was treated differently because of sex, race, color, religion, or national origin. Disparate impact applies if the employer has a rule that, is not directly discriminatory, but in practice excludes too many people in a protected group (Beatty et al. 2008). There is a statute of limitations when taking legal action and filing a case of employment discrimination, which begins on the date the alleged discrimination took place. Consulting with a lawyer or contacting the EEOC are vital steps in assuring ones job and rights are