Employment discrimination refers to any act that violates the right of equality, such as differential treatment and exclusion of laborers based on reasons such as gender, race, age, religious belief, social origin, health condition, appearance and so on. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is the main federal law prohibiting employment discrimination. Applicants and employees shall not be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. But it does not include age discrimination or disability discrimination.(Civil Rights Act, 1964)
In short, Title VII prohibits an employer from making an employment-related decision motivated by the protected characteristics of the individual mentioned above. As a result, employers can be sued for favoring white employees based on race or color.
The Act is the most important and comprehensive law on employment discrimination in the United States. It extends the ban on employment discrimination from government agencies to private employers. At the same time, the Civil Rights Act established the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to enforce the law independently.
The concept of employment discrimination in US law is not clearly defined. It can be found from this provision that the discrimination prohibited is mainly the discrimination of employers to employees based on congenital factors such as race, color, sex, religion or original nationality. But not all discriminatory behavior will constitute the employment discrimination, such as some discriminatory regulations is to take care of vulnerable groups and meet the needs of post for special skills. It will not be considered for employment discrimination as long as the employer could prove that the actions are exceptions to the laws and regulations. For example, waiters and waitresses in the lavatories of high-end hotels are usually separated by men and women.
It is worth noting that the discrimination explicitly opposed by the Act is mainly the discrimination based on innate natural factors or the acts that materially affect the discrimination of employees as a result. There is no doubt that it is clearly unfair to discriminate on the basis of factors which the employees themselves cannot choose. The employment discrimination act of the United States actually divides employment discrimination into two types: differential treatment and differential influence.(Robert, Dianne, Maria, and Roberto, 2004)In addition, the scope of anti-employment discrimination in the United States is quite wide, involving all aspects of the employment process of recruitment, employment, training, transfer, promotion and dismissal.
Many state laws also add categories that are not covered by federal law to lists of prohibited acts, such as discrimination based on marital status, arrest records, or sexual orientation. In addition, although federal civil rights laws apply to businesses engaged in interstate businesses, including most restaurants and hotels, many state laws apply to other types of public accommodation. Some companies will also expand the protection of their employees against discrimination. For example, some companies state that their employees are not discriminated against because of their gender preferences. They have voluntarily broadened the protections for its workforce.
The penalties for violating Title VII are severe. The plaintiff has the right to recover wages, future wages, the value of lost fringe benefits, other compensatory damages, attorneys’ fees, and injunctive relief. Moreover, the maximum federal fine for violation of Title VII is $50,000 (less than 100 employees) to $300,000 (more than 500 employees).
The typical common discrimination in the hotel industry is gender discrimination. The management positions within the hotel are divided into male and female positions. Women are basically not engaged in positions such as Security department and engineering department. It is considered that the Security department and engineering department are male positions. These positions are not suitable for women, so there are few female employees in these positions. However, the part of housing, marketing, human resources, finance and food and beverage are considered to be more suitable for women and are considered to be the best path for women career development. Therefore, there are more female employees in these departments.
In the hospitality industry, some of the more common areas of potential conflict are appearance and language. For example, an employer can require employees to wear uniforms or comply with certain common grooming standards, but must be implemented by all employees and for some business reasons. Discrimination by some companies of people with obvious accents may lead to lawsuits, especially where English is not considered a professional qualification.
Rules prohibiting employment discrimination apply when selecting employees to perform a job and after they are hired. The diversity of hotel industry employees determines a variety of attitudes about work, family, and fellow employees. Despite the protection of laws and severe penalties, employment discrimination still exists in the hotel industry, which shows that the fight against employment discrimination is a long-term battle.
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