Employment Law Assignment: University Name, Semester Details

This assignment solution addresses various aspects of employment law, including unconscious bias, criminal background checks, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). It explores scenarios involving workplace disputes, age discrimination (ADEA), and sexual harassment. The document provides insights into mitigating legal risks, conducting investigations, and addressing employee accommodation requests, offering a comprehensive analysis of employment law principles and their practical application in diverse workplace situations. It covers topics such as business necessity defenses, and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), providing a well-rounded understanding of employment law challenges and solutions.

1
Name:
Course
Professor’s name
University name
City, State
Date of submission

2
Employment law for business
Q1. Unconscious bias in the workplace may bring a lot of bias in employment.
Screening is important for a person before employment. It may involve the following
steps;
1. Screen resumes based on minimum qualifications
2. Shortlisting of candidates based on preferred and shortlisted qualifications
3. Shortlisting of candidates based on the minimum qualifications and a criminal search
on the candidates background
4. Some may require certificates of good conduct from relevant authorities like the
police department.
Factors to consider in criminal background check includes the pre- employment include
the availability of a conviction record, crime affecting the person, and duration of time served
or rehabilitation time (Harun, and Puluhulawa, 2016).
Q2. Does the ADA automatically protect Pat from discipline? Why or why not? Does
your answer change if the other employee received no discipline? Why or why not?
Under the ADA guidelines, employers of the company are able to provide
accommodations that are reasonable in a situation they are aware of like Pats condition. They
know Pats condition so they will not take any disciplinary measures. The answer does not
change if the other employee receives no discipline.
Q3. Explain how this could lead to affecting older workers. If your business used
the salary criterion, describe at least one way that an employer could mitigate the risk
of receiving an ADEA claim.

3
Downsizing an organization based on the salary of $ 175,000 annually will affect the
older people since the salary is commensurate to a high ranking position. This are people who
have risen to those positions due to experience and therefore age matters. For the employer to
mitigate against ADEA claim, they can use the Bona Fide Occupational Qualification
(BFOQ) or Corporate Reorganization (Haas et al, 2015.
Q4. Should you be worried, or did Quickdraw give good advice? What legal or
practical concerns might you have? What options would you explore?
Quickdraw gave a good advice. Firing on medical grounds is allowed in the law as
long as fair compensation is done. The legal concerns are lawsuits that Adam might place on
us citing wrongful termination of work. Other options to explore is to move him from the
customer service desk and taking him to areas where he has less interactions with customers.
Q5. Describe:
Conduct that a co-worker could engage in that would not support a sexual harassment
claim.
Indulging in a sexual or romantic relationship with a co-worker outside the confines of the
work place and is consensual.
An isolated act a co-worker could engage in that would likely support a racial
harassment claim.
Discriminating against one particular race in promotion and pay rise, example,
discriminating the minority communities like the blacks and Hispanics in promotion.

4
Q6. Would you advise HR to eliminate the graduation year inquiries? Why or
why not?
NO I wouldn’t. This is because the graduation year and the school of graduation is
important as it is part of the verification process and requirement under the HR policy. This is
for authenticity of the persons details.
Q6. Under what circumstances might a law firm want to use “recent law school
graduate preferred” in a job posting.
In an administrative position of the law firm of as a paralegal to help in researching on
the merits of a case. The wording a recent law school graduate preferred should be School of
Law graduate. This is a not recommended as it shows a unqualified person in the position
looking for a job.
Q7. What factors would you consider in addressing Asif’s proposal? What facts would
affect your decision, and are there additional facts you would want to know before
making your decision?
Asif’s proposal is good, however the factors to consider are: the condition it will leave
the call center in. will there be an overload to other employee and will it lead to customers
not complaining because of the changes. Also, will it affect intermittent FMLA available to
other employees in a situation similar to that.
Q8. Is Hortense correct? Explain why or why not.
Hortense is correct. This is because for a person to report harassment, he or she must
be the one being involved in the harassment as a victim. Unless Sam Jones reports himself to
the HR manager that he is being harassed by coworkers for being too feminine, the manager

5
is not responsible for Sam jones conducts. Only the victim of the harassment can report the
case.
Q9. What requirements would you include in a guide for managers on how to conduct a
sexual harassment investigation?
In conducting a sexual harassment investigations, the following are the guide for
managers. One should decide whether to investigate and decide whether the investigation is
really needed. The investigator or manger should take immediate action quickly. The manger
should then choose the investigator who plans for the investigation. The investigator should
then conduct interviews, gather evidence and more documents. He should then evaluate the
evidence gotten from the people and then take appropriate action (Jackson, 2019).
Q10. Would you approve the termination? What questions would have for Agnes? For
the employee?
NO, I wouldn’t approve. Although the employee has missed work for the 8
unapproved days for no reason, seven of the eight days are due to sickness. If she has valid
documents showing that she was sick and went to hospital. Then there is no reason to
approve. The question I would ask Agnes is if she was sick what would she do? And the
question I would ask the employee is where are the doctors reports showing the sickness.
Q11. Short Answer and Multiple Choice
Give an example of a business necessity defense that might be successful for an
employer defending against a pregnancy discrimination claim.

6
Protecting the employee s fetuses from workplaces hazards, example, if a pregnant employee
works in a chemical room in an industry, the woman may be sent home early due to this.
Q12. Is the employer obligated to consider the accommodation request? If yes, explain
why. If no, explain why not.
Yes. The employer is obligated to consider the request, however, the employer has the
right to deny Susie the request. This is because under the employer’s terms, Susie has leave
days which she can use to bond with the daughter. She has no right to ask and demand for an
early leave from work but the employer can also give her.
Q13. C. The ADEA has a “but for” causation standard.
Q14. B. A black employee, Marty, claims racial harassment, alleging that his co-worker,
Derek, told Marty that he believes that their white boss is racially harassing another co-
worker because he yells at the co-worker for being late (Venter, 2016).
Explanation
Yelling to a late worker who is of a different race does not necessarily mean racial abuse.
Q15. c Granting it would cause business disruption because if we grant it for one person, we
will have to grant something like that for everyone.

7
References
Harun, A.A. and Puluhulawa, F., 2016. CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS OF DOMESTIC
WORKERS.
Haas III, W.M., Clifton III, W.M., Martin, W., Jonathan, I.I. and Peters, A.K., 2015. Labor
and Employment Law. Mercer L. Rev., 67, p.91.
Jackson, K.V., 2019. Corporate Autonomy: Law, Constitutional Democracy, and the Rights
of Big Business (Doctoral dissertation, Columbia University).
Venter, D., 2016. Illogical limits: employement law. Without Prejudice, 16(8), pp.36-37.