Are Affirmative Action Plan Goals Evidence of
Discrimination?
Are Affirmative Action Plan Goals Evidence of Discrimination?
Affirmative action is a process of actively seeking to identify, hire and
promote qualified members of underrepresented groups. The main purpose of
affirmative action is to ensure that all racial and gender groups were
proportionately represented at all levels of the company The affirmative action
is directly related with people perception and Discrimination is define as differential
treatment of individuals belonging to particular groups or categories. There
are so much controversy on affirmative action whether it is good or bad even
that different country easily accept the action. Employee hire under the
affirmative action may be less qualified from other so they may be treated as
differently but if the both employee which is one from underrepresented group
and other from overrepresented group then hiring employee by using affirmative
action is best. Such that affirmative action gives “certain criterion of
merit”, and it is not intentionally discriminatory because everyone has not
equal access or more smart and capable than other group for that job. The
capability may be differ by inherently and gender so affirmative action plays
an important role to recruit capable people from underrepresented group.
Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VII, which states that none of its
provisions should be interpreted as requiring “preferential treatment” for any
individual, rebuts the idea that affirmative action is based on a system of
quotas. (Brunner, Borgna). Affirmative action may result discrimination and
divides society along lines of race, ethnicity, gender, and nationality by
creating groups whose membership is determined by those labels.
Workplace
Discrimination and Types
The Xerox Company decided not to promote the six black employee in the
higher post even they are capable for that position. The discrimination is occurred
and it is racial discrimination. They are not promoted because of their skin
color i.e. black which is disparate treatment under the Title VII of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964. When the employer treated differently than other employees
who were in a similar situation because of their membership in a protected
class like religion, sex and race is called disparate treatment. It is an
intentional discrimination. The promotion of black employee statistically
greater impact on one group than on another so it is it is disparate impact.
Disparate impact is the discrimination that occurs when an employment practice
result in members of a protected class being treated less favorable than
members of a non-protected class even though the discrimination was not
intentional. The decision of company doesn’t affect only the black people. It
can effect positively to the white people because if black is not allow in
higher post then lower capability white employee will promote in high post. The
black people believe that after complying about the discrimination, their
opportunity for growth also decrease. They believe it’s adversely affect to
their opportunity to advancement so it is retaliation. Such that it can be
describe combine by the both and along with retaliation.
Burden of Proof
According to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 A company
can't decide whether or not to promote a worker based on the employee's color,
race, religion, sex or national origin. . If someone feel that they are
discriminated and turned down their opportunity because of protected class then
they can make prima facie case or preliminary case using the McDonnell Douglas
test. In the above case the discrimination has been occur under the act of 1964
so the black employee can make a file against the Xerox Company. Here the 6
black people are the plaintiffs and Xerox Company is defendant which has burden
proof of case. Xerox Corporation's balanced workforce initiatives which were
based on government labor force it was started in 1990s and its objectives was
to ensure and maintain representation of all racial and gender group through
the company. The company uses affirmative action to create harmony in the work.
The reports of Houston office shows that black employees were overrepresented
and white were underrepresented. Xerox Corporation take step to reduced black
employee and that was crucial decision of company to maintain equal
representation of all racial group in the company. The plaintiffs claim that
they are denied even they have qualified for that position but it doesn’t
clearly describe that there is no any white employee who have equally qualified
for that post. There may be a white employee who has equally qualified and
according to the law the merit should be given to the underrepresent group (the
report shows white employee are underrepresent group at a current situation)
Also there is no legal document, just they felt that it’s adversely affect
their opportunity to growth so I think that the Xerox Company has more burden
of proofs than plaintiffs.
Views on Avoiding Workplace Discrimination
Xerox is a well-known manufacturer and marketer of copying machines which
provide facilities management services, called Xerox Business Services (XBS),
to commercial customers throughout the United States. its objectives was to
ensure and maintain representation of all racial and gender group through the
company and provide customer services as their requirement. There are a lot of
challenges in the company. The organization demand is to maintain harmony in
the work between the racial and gender groups. It is very difficult to
accomplish the goal of organization doing discrimination to certain group of
the people in the company. Here the six black people are qualified for the
promotion but they are not interviewed and not promoted, this will create
disturb environment in the organization. Because it is intentional
discrimination which is under the act of law. So the psychological effect play
in the mind of black employee. Such that they may think we will not promoted
even we work hard than other group. So they may not give their best into the
work. The company can run different motivation program and different benefits
to motive them. It will work for a little time. Because when the people are
qualified for a certain level of post the pay is not important they want to
take more responsibility and want to develop their skills and knowledge. When
they will know it will not happen because of racial discrimination they will
demotivated and not to like work hard. Some of them may quite the job and some
may charge file case against the company. In this situation it is very very
hard to achieve organization goal
Recommendations:
Recommendation
1: It is recommended to keep all white and black
staff members with the company, and need to promote the qualified people in the
higher post. They have to create new jobs plan to hire people under the
affirmative action such that the proportion of racial group will balance always
in the Xerox company. It will create harmony and good environment in the work
place.
Recommendation
2: Xerox Corporation's is balanced workforce
initiatives which were based on government labor force. It introduce
affirmative action to avoid discrimination but discrimination occurred. In this
case they should appoint team of legal advisor in the company. Such that they
will advise both the company and the employee. The Human Resources manager have
to look every year statistics of proportion of the group and gender employee in
the company. If they found some differences they have to change internal law
and regulation that will not affect the internal employee of the company. The
HR manager should recruit people from those group which is underrepresent.
Summary
and Conclusion
The
affirmative action is directly related with people perception. There are
several number of act which describe the condition of discrimination. Xerox is
a well-known manufacturer and marketer of copying machines which provide
facilities management services, called Xerox Business Services (XBS), to
commercial customers throughout the United States. In 1960 affirmative action
was introduce in the America to avoid discrimination. Disparate impact and
disparate treatment are two legal theories of discrimination. The
discrimination is occur in the Xerox Company when it decided not to promote the
black people in higher post because of their group. The company want to
maintain the equal racial representation on company but it is against the law
not to promote employee in higher post because of their skin color. In this
case the company should introduce more benefit program for them and they should
promote employee according to their qualification and job specification. The legal
advisor have to suggest the company what to do next in that situation so the
organization will accomplish the goal in time.
References
Lepak, D., &
Gowan, M. (2010). Human resource management:
Regulatory Issues. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
(2013,
7 28). Retrieved from www.nyu.edu: http://www.nyu.edu/classes/jackson/social.issues/papers/AfActGrC.html
(2013, 7 28).
Retrieved from www.wageproject.org:
http://www.wageproject.org/files/pdispimp.php
(2013, 7 28).
Retrieved from springboard.resourcefulhr.com: http://springboard.resourcefulhr.com/disparate-impact-versus-disparate-treatment-%E2%80%93-what-employers-need-to-know/
(2013, 7 28).
Retrieved from www.eeoc.gov: http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/types/race_color.cfm
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