Assess the possible explanations for enduring forms of discrimination at the workplace. Discuss the reasons why employers should bother with policies designed to promote equal opportunities and diversity management. (29)

Discrimination means treating some people differently from someone else. It happens when an employer treats one employee less favorably than others. Employer treats some people differently because of certain characteristics, such as disability, age or sex. This discrimination results in the impairment of equal opportunity. (International Labour Organization, no date) Thus, the abolition of discrimination at work is an important task of the society. The purpose of that is to let every employee has equal opportunities and treatment. “Equal opportunity refers to the equality of access to jobs, promotions, and other opportunities in corporations, associations and nonprofit organizations.” (Boyd, no date) Moreover, the equal opportunity legislation helps some people who were discriminated achieve equal opportunities in the workplace and in wider society. This essay will access the possible explanations for enduring forms of discrimination at the workplace and discuss the reasons why employers need to comply with the policy to promote equal opportunity and diversity management.

The enduring forms of discrimination can not avoid at the workplace, even if already have equal opportunity legislation. The explanation for the continued presence of discrimination is that employers will always select excellent person for the job. They like some employees who have comprehensive capability and can bring more benefits to the company. In addition, some employees who suffered discrimination have not complained about their unfair treatment. (Julie Tim, 2010) Therefore, some discrimination like age, race, sex or disability discrimination will appear at work enduringly. For instance, the amount of male workers is always more than the amount of female workers. Moreover, some jobs even hiring male works only. This is a seriously sex discrimination. Some companies will discriminate against the disabled employees that their ability is not as normal. These behaviors was not only reflected some employees are not treated fairly, but also illustrated that the discrimination is an enduring social problems which difficult to solve.

Discrimination is a big problem that many people are facing in the workplace. Some employees suffer from unfair treatment due to their special characteristics. There are three main discriminations exist at the workplace for a long time. Firstly, disability discrimination is a kind of discrimination. It is well know that disable people have a few defects in their body. They are not like average people have normal life. Thus, they are often subject to discrimination, even in the workplace. Disability discrimination means treating individuals less favorably because of their disability or perceived disability. People rarely see the disabled people participate in the work all the time. Many employers refused them at the time of hiring. Kessler Foundation and the National Organization on Disabilities reported that: “59% of 1,800 working-age study participants with no obvious functional impairments were working full- or part-time, compared to only 21% of similarly situated disabled workers. This means that, sadly, 79% of disabled participants in this study were unemployed, nearly twice the 41% rate of able-bodied participants.” (Cummings, 2010) There are several reasons for the emergence of this situation. One is negative perceptions --- the employers fear that disabled employees will create more work for their supervisors. There will be a lot of difficulties in work for the disabled due to their physical defects. They may not to complete a work by themselves. Another one is lack of external hiring support --- In fact, the employer will find very few external resources that can help recruit the disabled.