Avoiding Potholes on the EEO Highway

Your company's road to success is littered with curves and hazards, not the least of which are potholes of concern about discrimination lawsuits. Unfortunately, many employers ignore the potholes until they hit one. Hoping it won't happen isn't good "road sense." There are positive steps you can take to make the road a little smoother.

Know the rules of the road. Generally, companies with 15+ employees are subject to Federal and State laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of age, sex, race, national origin, religion, marital status, disability, veteran's status. These include:

• Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1991
• Equal Pay Act
• Age Discrimination in Employment Act
• Americans with Disabilities Act
• Rehabilitation Act
• Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1973
• Florida Human Rights Act
• Laws applying to government contractors: Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act, Davis Bacon Act, Service Contract Act

These are just the laws pertaining to discrimination. More laws, such as COBRA, Family and Medical Leave Act, Immigration Reform and Control Act, Fair Labor Standards Act, and the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Act, to name a few, govern other workplace issues.

Government agencies that oversee compliance and investigate complaints include the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission), OFCCP (Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs), the Florida Commission on Human Relations, and the City of Orlando Human Relations Board.

Perform preventive road maintenance. Lack of deliberate discrimination doesn't protect you, nor does just having a written policy and hanging Federal and State posters.

• Review your application forms, recruiting ads, hiring and promotion policies and practices, job descriptions and employee handbooks, benefits policies and procedures, discipline and termination procedures and purge them of any language or practice that may be unlawfully discriminatory.
• Establish a system and procedure for documenting actions taken with employees.
• Provide supervisory and staff training on topics related to discrimination.
• Develop and implement a procedure for handling grievances.

Teach your supervisors highway safety. Train supervisors on how to intervene and respond to overt and subtle workplace problems so that both your company and your employees are protected from the divisiveness of discrimination and complaints.

Fix potholes quickly.

• Take prompt and appropriate action in response to discrimination problems.
• Give employees an objective, fair, and timely process for having their complaints investigated and resolved. Employee problems don't go away if you wait long enough, they worsen; and, the worse they get, the greater the chance that aggrieved employees will contact the EEOC and/or a lawyer.

Build sturdy bridges. Create a work atmosphere in which employees know that their skills are useful and recognized, that they will be treated with respect, compassion and fairness, as well as with compliance, that their problems will be heard and responded to.

Taking these steps doesn't guarantee that you company won't travel the EEO highway, but it can help prevent your breaking an axle by falling into a pothole along the way.

Additional Information is available from a number of sources, including:

Websites:

Other Resources: Human resources consultants, the Employers Association of Florida, employment attorneys.