HR Law Violation Report: Title VII of Civil Rights Act and EEOC

This report analyzes a case where Polo, a US-based company, was accused of violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The company failed to hire Grace, a qualified applicant of African origin, due to her gender and national origin. The report examines the requirements of Title VII, which prohibits discrimination based on race, sex, and national origin, enforced by the EEOC. It highlights the company's violation in its hiring process, specifically its failure to adhere to the law's provisions regarding equal employment opportunities. The report recommends that Polo implement a written employment policy with clear recruitment requirements, provide employees with a handbook detailing Civil Rights and the necessary actions to take in case of violations, and ensure that the HR department avoids disclosing any job application with protected factors. The report emphasizes the importance of training to prevent unconscious discrimination, as well as the remedies available to aggrieved parties under Title VII, including back pay, compensation, and attorney's fees.

Polo is a company in the United States that deals with the manufacturing and production of men
T-shirts. The company had advertised a sales and marketing vacancy which attracted a pool of
applicants. The applicants were shortlisted and invited for interviews. Among the shortlisted,
Grace was among the most qualified applicants. Unfortunately, she was not considered after the
interviews because she was a lady and of African origin. According to Title VII Act of 1964, she
felt that her Civil Rights of gender and national origin were violated and she has filled the case as
an aggrieved party with the EEOC.
Among the HR laws, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, is one of the United States'
human resource laws. Marini, I., & Stebnicki, M. (2012) argue that the law was established to
outlaw discrimination and registration requirements for employers in government, public
facilities guaranteeing employees equal employment rights. This law argues that employees
should be protected against individual discrimination basis such as color, race, sex, national
origin, and religion. Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) is a body that was
established by the Civil Rights Act with aim of promoting equal employment opportunities by
offering technical assistance and education through the judicial enforcement of Title VII (King,
T. F., 2013). An employer may violet Title VII by discriminating an employee during hiring,
promoting, recruiting, transferring, setting wages, firing, training and providing benefits among
other employment terms and conditions. The Civil Rights Law applies to both public and private
sectors with 15 or more employees in at least twenty weeks in the preceding or current year
calendar. The EEOC extends its coverage of Civil Rights to employment agencies, labor
organizations as well as federal government. Any person covered by Title VII and working or
applying for a job cannot receive different treatment at any workplace-based on perceived
nationalism, religion, regional, sexual characteristic or even associating with anyone with these

protected characteristics. Besides, employers should not make decisions using assumptions of the
protected characteristics. For instance; it will be an offense if the executive director fails to
employ an African as a manger because Africans are said to have poor leadership skills (Gold, S.
D., 2011).
Condrey, S. E. (2010) argues that employers may sometimes exercise unconscious
discrimination causing an effect on the law decisions. A significant role is played by the
department of Human Resource in overseeing and guarding the employment decision to ensure
that the Title VII Laws are not violated. The department needs to avoid disclosing the job
application containing the protected factors because it should only be confidential to the HR.
Section 703 provides that it is unlawful for an employment agency to fail to refer or an employer
to discharge individuals, fail to hire them or discriminate against an individual based on
compensation, conditions, color, sex, race or national origin. Besides the EEOC provides the
right to any employees who feel that her employment rights have been discriminated against as
indicated in Title VII, she should forward her name as an aggrieved party and file a
discrimination charge with the EEOC. However, the party should give the agency some humble
time to resolve the grievance (Armstrong, M. 2012). In case there is no section 706 deferral
agency to investigate the discrimination claims, the victim should file the charge with the EEOC
within one hundred and eighty (180) days after the occurrence of the practice of unlawful
employment alleged for a timely charge. On the other hand, if there is a qualified deferral
agency, the charge must be submitted to the EEOC within 300 days. The charges are made in
writing where after EEOC receives them serves a notice within 10 days to the labor organization,
the employer or government agency. The EEOC then investigates the claim to determine if the
charges are true. Once the agency has made and determined non-cause the complainant is

notified by the EEOC on the right to sue within 90 days to provide suit. Once the employee
receives right- to sue notice, he/ she may begin a legal action or the Justice Department may do it
on behalf of the employee. The remedies for Title VII under the Civil Right Act 1991 provides
back pay and compensation damage. The punitive damage only applies to the employers from
the private sector and not the local government or state employer. Another remedial scheme is
the attorney's fees awarded by the court. The complainant it empowered by Title VII to receive
attorneys fee from the court as well as fee awarded to the experts (Pynes, J., & Lombardi, D. N.,
2011).
The polo was not clear on specific gender and nationalism requirements when posting the advert
thus attracting all sorts of applicants. In the future, the organization should have a written
employment policy that will contain all the employment and recruitment requirements as well as
the procedures to be followed. On the same note, all employees should be provided with a
printed handbook containing the Civil Right according to Title VII and the necessary actions that
should be taken in case any of the rights are violated.

References
Armstrong, M. (2012). Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice. London:
Kogan Page.
Condrey, S. E. (2010). Handbook of human resource management in government.
Gold, S. D. (2011). The Civil Rights Act of 1964. New York: Marshall Cavendish Benchmark.
King, T. F. (2013). Cultural resource laws and practice.
Marini, I., & Stebnicki, M. (2012). The Psychological and Social Impact of Illness and
Disability. New York: Springer Pub. Co.
Pynes, J., & Lombardi, D. N. (2011). Human resources management for health care
organizations: A strategic approach. San Francisco, Calif: Jossey-