Essay about disparate treatment

Submitted By berlandson
Words: 961
Pages: 4

Disparate Treatment

Disparate treatment and adverse impact are broad categories of unlawful employment discrimination as established through various Supreme Court rulings. The Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures established the concept of adverse impact. The guidelines state that adverse impact occurs when women and minorities are not hired at the rate of eighty percent of the best achieving group (Mondy, 2010, p. 74). When employees are treated less favorably than their coworkers because of age, sex, race, religion, color, natural origin it is disparate treatment (Mondy, 2010, p. 73). If disparate treatment occurs and the individual or groups of individuals wish to file a claim there are situational factors that are required by the court to initially establish the charge. The purpose of this paper is to list and discuss these necessary situational factors. First the person or persons charging and employer with disparate treatment must belong to a protected class (Henemann III, Judge, & Kammeyer-Muller, 2012, p. 58). A protected class is a group that lawmakers have specifically protected from discrimination. Currently protected classes include anyone who suffers from discrimination on the basis of their age, disability, sex, race, color, national origin, or religion. In some states people are also protected from discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation (Twomey, 2010, p. 464). The plaintiff must only be able to prove that their membership to this protected class was a motivating factor in the discriminatory decision; it is not necessary for membership to the protected class to be the only deciding factor. Nor must is be the most significant decision factor used by the employer (Twomey, 2010, p. 395). In order for a class of people to become a protected class a law must be passed by the government. This situational factor is essential in the process of charging that disparate treatment occurred because it establishes that a written law of protection is in place to be violated. The second factor required for a charge of disparate treatment is the claimant must be a qualified applicant for a position in which the employer was seeking applicants (Henemann III, Judge, & Kammeyer-Muller, 2012, p. 58). This situational factor is important because all qualified applicants need to be considered in a fair and equal manner in order for discrimination not to occur (Mondy, 2010, p. 191). If an individual is not qualified or does not apply for a position it is unreasonable to expect that they are considered for a position. If there was no consideration and no decision was made about a claimant then a discriminatory decision factor does not exist. Also if there is not an available position that the employers are trying to fill a selection decision would not be made. If a decision is not made it cannot be based on discriminatory factors. To claim disparate treatment it is necessary that the person was rejected despite being qualified (Henemann III, Judge, & Kammeyer-Muller, 2012, p. 58). Proof that the claimant was rejected because of their protected status is not required. They must only show that they were rejected despite their qualifications (Twomey, 2010, p. 364). If the complaint can meet their burden to provide sufficient proof that they are qualified for the position of which they were rejected then the remaining burden shifts to the employer. It is the employer’s responsibility to provide a legitimate reason for the rejection that is not discriminatory (Twomey, 2010, p. 365). Proof of qualification is a necessary factor to a claim of disparate treatment because rejection of an applicant on the basis of their qualification being insufficient is considered a legitimate nondiscriminatory rejection. The fourth situational factor that must be present to infer that discriminatory decisions factors were used is: the position must remain unfilled and