Essay on "Equal Opportunity"

Essay 3 pages (1028 words) Sources: 2

[EXCERPT] . . . .

The ADEA was undercut by Hazen Paper v Biggins, which allowed that factors correlating to age, such as pension status, can be used to discriminate against employees. The ADEA was further weakened in Kimel v Florida, which held that age discrimination is not always irrational and therefore can be used when it is rational. Bragdon v Abbott added HIV-positive status to the list of disabilities for the ADA. Sutton v United Airlines and Murphy v United Parcel Service established that mitigating circumstances such as medication must be taken into consideration in ADA cases.

Case: The United States Forest Service is a federal agency with a large number of employees, therefore it is subject to all federal civil rights statutes. Boulden is both African-American and female, both groups with protected status under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It was clear that Boulden suffered from discrimination and that this discrimination adversely affected both her working conditions and her future employment status. She would have had a successful claim with the EEOC.

In essence, there were multiple failings here in terms of how the discrimination was handled. Certainly, Boulden could have and should have taken her case to the EEOC directly, instead of trying to work internally. If there is any evidence at all, this case would have been a slam dunk for any civil rights lawyer. So she must take responsibility for quitting instead of pursuing legal remedy. One only receives legal remedy when one pushes for it.

The Human Resources Department at Hoosier National Forest and at the National Forest Service were both culpable. They had received information about this discrimination and completely failed to act on it. This failing exposed the organization to legal action -- had Boulden pursued her case, she would have won and that could have been both humiliating and costly to the USFS. It is critical that the USFS needed to have stronger policies with respect to investigating discrimination claims, because better policies would have delivered better results and the organization would not have been so exposed.

Overall, there were no winners in this case, since it was never taken to court. Clearly, there are deficiencies in the human resources management system at USFS, but because those were never exposed, they were never remedied. The legal system only works when it is engaged, and in this case that role would not only have been to win remedy for Boulden, who likely suffered loss of income, psychological distress and loss of pension, but also there was an opportunity lost for the USFS to improve its system of investigating and addressing discrimination complaints. The organization is likely to face more such issues in the future, since its system is still broken. Its failures here are going to come back to haunt it down the road when that happens and they are faced with legal action.

References

EEOC.gov. (2009). Laws enforced by the EEOC. EEOC.gov. Retrieved February 18, 2014 from http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/statutes/

EEOC.gov. (2014). Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. EEOC.gov. Retrieved February 18, 2014 from http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/statutes/titlevii.cfm READ MORE

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