EEO COMPLIANCE FOR SUPERVISORS AND MANAGERS

Transcription

1 LEADER S GUIDE 1196-LDG-E EEO COMPLIANCE FOR SUPERVISORS AND MANAGERS "Quality Safety and Health Products, for Today...and Tomorrow"

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION 2 HOW TO RUN A MEETING 3 INTRODUCE THE VIDEO 4 GROUP DISCUSSION 5 CONCLUDE THE MEETING

3 INTRODUCTION Equal employment opportunity (EEO) laws require your supervisors to make employment decisions without regard to race, sex, age, national origin, religion or disability. Their compliance with these laws, of course, helps keep your company out of court. But it also strengthens your organization and creates in your workplace an atmosphere free of the damaging effects of discrimination. When your supervisors respect and appreciate the differences among people and capitalize on the diversity in your workforce, everyone wins. Complying with EEO laws makes good business sense and is also the right thing to do. This program explains the major federal EEO laws to your supervisors and then shows them a five-step plan of action for helping to ensure compliance with those laws, as well as with the state and municipal laws that may govern your business. HOW TO RUN A MEETING Materials As program coordinator, you have the following materials provided to you: - Video Presentation - Participant s Workbook - Reminder Card In addition, you may want to provide your own handouts covering - Company policy - Company data - Other material supporting the topic Meeting Preparation Checklist These guidelines will help you prepare for your meeting: - Preview the video presentation. - Announce the meeting: time, place, and purpose. - Distribute Participant s Workbooks: Assign introductory section and objectives as pre-meeting reading. - Prepare handouts.

4 Facilitating the Meeting Taking the following steps will help you facilitate your meeting: - Introduce the video. Read the sample speech for introducing the training session. You may read the speech as it is written or paraphrase it to suit your own style. - Show the video. Participants will see a variety of scenarios in which supervisors are faced with common workplace situations involving compliance with EEO laws. Your supervisors are introduced to the broad spectrum of issues they must consider and are provided with a series of questions they can ask themselves to monitor their own EEO compliance. - Lead the discussion. Your job during this part of the training session will be to guide the discussion and encourage all managers and supervisors to participate and complete their Participant s Workbook. After the video presentation and some discussion, check for understanding by having each participant complete the self-evaluation portion of his or her workbook. Ask for reactions from the group. Get participants to apply what they ve learned in the meeting by having them complete the exercises within their workbook that will help them create their action plan. Note: The answers to this section are personal. However, it may be beneficial to the group to ask for volunteers to share their answers and action plans. An alternative would be to prepare (in advance) some model answers for the group. - Conclude the meeting. Read the sample speech for concluding the meeting and hand out the Reminder Cards. Encourage meeting participants to keep the cards where they can easily refer to them for a quick review.

5 INTRODUCE THE VIDEO The video program you re about to see will give you an overview of the federal equal employment opportunity laws with which we have to comply. These laws require you to make employment decisions without regard to race, sex, age, national origin, religion, or disability. The video and the discussion session we ll have after we see the video will help you better understand the requirements of the laws and your role in helping our company meet them. Please understand that no one expects you to become a legal expert. But it s important for you to be familiar with the laws and recognize your responsibilities under them. After today, you ll be better prepared to make fair and equitable decisions in the variety of employment situations that you face as a supervisor. GROUP DISCUSSION For each point: 1) Read or paraphrase the synopsis of the illustrative scene from the video. 2) Ask members of your group to comment on the discussion questions about that scene. Suggested answers are in italics following the question. Try to get as many members of your training group as possible to participate in the discussion. 3) Use the case study and questions to emphasize the point and broaden the discussion. Choose your words carefully. Synopsis: Larry has decided to hitch his wagon to the rising young stars in his department. He tells his colleague Eileen that the young fast-trackers are really making him look good, that he wishes he had a whole department of them. One of Larry s employees, however, feels that he s getting the short end of the stick. Fred, who is 55 years old, accuses Larry of age discrimination. Fred says he s been denied opportunities solely because of his age. Larry s response? I can t afford to hold back a rising star Fred goes to court. (NOTE: The Age Discrimination in Employment Act prohibits discrimination based on age against anyone over 40.)

6 Discussion questions: - Do you think Fred will win his case? (He has a good chance. The burden will be on the company to show that Larry didn t deny Fred training opportunities and assignments solely because of his age that Fred had the same training opportunities as all other employees. On the basis of the scenes you saw, this will be difficult, if not impossible, to prove. Eileen s testimony alone could bury Larry. And if Larry has put any similar comments in writing, Fred is virtually assured of winning his case.) - What are some other words that may signal age discrimination to a court? (New blood, fresh faces, fresh approach, young turks, veterans, old-timers, overqualified, etc.) - How could words be used as evidence of discrimination in other types of EEO cases? (Any language that gives voice to bias of any kind can be used as evidence against a company. Supervisors have a responsibility to treat employees professionally and with respect.) - How can you monitor your speech to make sure it is in compliance with EEO requirements? (Ask yourself this question: How would I feel if my words were printed in the local paper?) Case Study: Employee Karen Logan comes into Supervisor Ed French s office, complaining that she s been excluded from the rotation schedule for driving the company s supply truck. French is surprised. He says that he figured Logan wouldn t want to be included. Why not? Logan asks. Well, it s a big truck. I thought it might be too much for you to handle. I mean, driving a truck isn t exactly a job for a woman, is it? asks French.

7 - What did French do wrong? (His words reflect a bias about women in traditionally male jobs. Whether or not he means it, he seems to convey the message that he thinks Logan is incapable of performing this job solely because she is a woman.) - Do you think this situation could lead to sex discrimination charges? Why or why not? (If a supervisor s biases are reflected in employment decisions, as they appear to be in this situation, then a case of discrimination could be made and probably won.) Be consistent in your treatment of employees. Synopsis: Doug Whitman looks the other way when employees come in a little late, until one morning when jumps on Mike Jarvis for coming in 10 minutes late. Doug tells Mike he s going to dock his pay. Then he tells all his employees that he will no longer tolerate lateness. Mike sues, claiming race discrimination. (NOTE: Whether you intend to discriminate is not the issue in cases involving inconsistent treatment. It s your action on which the court bases its ruling.) Discussion questions: - How do you think this case turned out? (As the judge explained, this incident was only one in which Mike Jarvis was disciplined for rule infractions while his white co-workers, who were guilty of similar infractions, were let off the hook. Under those circumstances, it is likely that the court would rule in favor of the employee. Had this been an isolated incident of a supervisor making an example of one employee and then holding all the others to the same standard, a charge of discrimination might not stick.)

8 - Can you think of a situation in which you treated an employee differently from his or her co-workers? Was the employee in a protected group, based on age, race, sex, national origin or religion? (Even seemingly innocent disparities in treatment can result in discrimination charges. You may even think you are doing an employee a favor. But remember, equal treatment for similarly situated employees is the rule.) - How can you be sure you re being consistent in your treatment of employees? (Ask yourself this question: Is this action consistent with my past practices and company policy?) Case Study: Regina Jackson fires Luis Castro after two years of employment. Castro sues, claiming national origin discrimination. Jackson says she fired Castro because his performance was inadequate. She maintains that Castro knew that his performance was not acceptable because told him so on four separate occasions when she gave him performance appraisals. She also brings Castro s file into court and submits it as evidence a bulging folder, full of paper documenting Castro s poor performance. It looks like an open-and-shut case, until Castro s lawyer asks to see the files on other employees in the department and wants to know how often the performance of these employees is evaluated. It turns out that Jackson evaluated her other employees only twice during the same period, not four times. And the files of Castro s co-workers contain very little documentation of any kind. Castro s lawyer charges that Jackson singled out Castro because he was Hispanic, treated him differently from other employees, and tried to build a case against him through her files and appraisals all evidence of unusual treatment. - How do you think this lawsuit will turn out? (The employee is likely to win because the supervisor has apparently treated this employee differently from all other employees. It may well be true that Castro s performance was substandard. But by documenting and evaluating only his performance in such detail, the supervisor made it possible to infer that there was a discriminatory motive involved here as well.)

9 - What does this tell you about equal treatment of employees? (There is always the temptation to come down only on employees who do things wrong. But unless all your employees receive a similar degree of attention when they do things wrong or right, for that matter then you may find yourself on the wrong side of one of the EEO laws someday.) Apply standards equally. Synopsis: Warehouse Supervisor Ken Garrison has to decide who to promote to assistant supervisor. He s narrowed the choice down to two employees one of them a highly qualified woman. In fact, this woman is more qualified than the male candidate. But, says Ken to himself as he ponders the decision, those guys out there aren t going to listen to a woman. I d hate to put her in a position where she d be given a hard time. And what about me? The guys would be in here complaining all the time. Discussion questions: - If Ken selects the man, do you think the female employee would have a case for sex discrimination? (Her situation satisfies the four requirements for taking a discrimination case to court: 1) She is a member of a protected group; 2) she applied for the job; 3) she was qualified for the job; and 4) a less qualified male was given the job.) - Can you think of other examples in which seemingly innocent or even protective considerations could lead to charges of job discrimination? (Not assigning a key project to an older employee to protect him or her from stress. Would you feel the need to protect other employees in the same way? Passing over a woman for a job that requires heavy lifting and giving it to a man without finding out whether either or both of them are capable of handling the lifting. How do you know that the woman couldn t handle the lifting just as well as or better than the man?)

10 - How can you check to make sure you are applying standards equally? (Ask yourself this question: Do I consider only factors that are objective and job related?) Case Study: Helen Thomas requires employees in her department to conform to the company s attendance policy. Employees have been put on notice that the first time they violate the rules they will receive an informal warning. The next violation will mean an official oral warning, and so on. Thomas is well known for being meticulous about enforcing this policy. She has fired more than one employee for repeated violations of the rules. However, when she fires Jeff Lewis, who is black, for excessive absences, Lewis sues the company for race discrimination. - What are the chances that Lewis s case will be successful? (It appears that they are not very good. Thomas has been extremely consistent in her application of the attendance standards and she has held all employees to the same standard. It would seem that Lewis s repeated violations of the policy, despite clear warnings, were the reason for his dismissal, not his race.) - What other standards should you be careful to apply equally? (Any rule, policy, requirement, etc., should be applied to all employees equally, regardless of race, sex, age, religion, or national origin. For example, when it comes to productivity, make sure each person pulls his or her own weight.)

11 Never retaliate. Synopsis: Employee Carlos Benitez has filed national origin discrimination charges against his company. He claims he was denied training opportunities because he is Hispanic. After he files the charges, his supervisor, Eileen Maxwell, rates him poorly in attitude and cooperation in his performance appraisal. Carlos believes it is in retaliation for filing charges. Eileen tells Carlos she rated him low in those areas because this department values teamwork and you re not a team player. Carlos says he is going to report this latest incident to the agency compliance officer who is handling his discrimination case. Discussion questions: - Do you think the retaliation charge will stick? (Eileen s comment seems to indicate that she is penalizing Carlos for taking his problem to the EEO agency. Also, a significant lowering of appraisal rating coming on the heels of a discrimination charge will certainly be a red flag to the court.) - What are some other supervisory actions that could be interpreted as retaliation for filing charges? (Giving an employee undesirable job assignments or transfers, failing to offer desirable assignments or transfers, denying promotions or raises, taking disciplinary action, etc. Of course, any one of these actions may be necessary and legitimate. If a supervisor has the records to prove that the action was required by business necessity, then there should be no problem. But keep in mind that any adverse action taken against an employee who has filed discrimination charges may be viewed with suspicion by a court.) - What s the best course of action when you re dealing with an employee who has filed charges? (Treat the employee exactly as you would any other similarly situated employee who has not filed a charge. Check with your manager before taking any action that affects the employee.)

12 - How can you make sure you don t retaliate against an employee who has filed charges? (Ask yourself this question: Would I treat an employee who hadn t complained the same way?) Case Study: Ellen McEnerny has filed age discrimination charges against her employer. Supervisor Bill Reid is personally hurt by the charges, since he s supervised McEnerny for years and believes he has always been fair with her. Reid decides not to give McEnerny any ammunition to use against him. He is careful to avoid McEnerny and work around her. A couple of months later, Reid is delighted to hear that the state EEO office has dismissed McEnerny s charges. He is stunned, however, to learn that an additional charge of retaliation for filing a complaint is being investigated and may go to trial. What s the basis for the retaliation charge? McEnerny claims that Reid punished her for filing charges by sidelining her and depriving her of assignments and other employment opportunities. - What did Reid do wrong? (He let his personal feelings cloud his professional judgment. No matter how much a discrimination charge may hurt you personally, no matter how unjustified you feel it may be, continue to treat the employee in question the same as before, and take no action against this employee no matter how justified without checking first with your manager.) - Do you think the retaliation charge will stick? (It has a good chance if McEnerny can show that the special treatment started after she had filed charges and that no other employee in the department had been treated the way she was.) Keep fair and accurate records. Synopsis: While Supervisor Larry Lomax is interviewing applicant Jennifer Kenney, Kenney volunteers that she has recently cut back her civic activities because she has a baby. I feel it s important to spend as much time as possible with her, says Kenney of the baby. You know, kids grow up so fast these days Larry notes on the application form: Child Attendance problem?

13 Discussion questions: - What do you think Jennifer s chances are of winning a sex discrimination case if she isn t hired and files charges? (Larry s written comment on a document that becomes part of the company s employment records would certainly not help the company s case. As the judge said, even if this information wasn t considered when the employment decision was made, its very existence can support allegations of discrimination.) - Can you think of other examples of stereotyped thinking? (That women are not physically strong enough to do men s work ; that older people are less productive; that people with disabilities are incapable of high levels of performance.) - How can you be sure your records are fair and accurate? (Ask yourself this question: Do my records reflect factual information rather than assumptions and opinions?) Case Study: Jake Barris sues his employer under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, claiming that the employer did not offer reasonable accommodation for his disability. The company claims it did. Barris s supervisor, Allen Lyons, tells the court all the things he did to accommodate Barris s disability. The plaintiff s attorney asks to see Lyons s documentation. Lyons has nothing to show, but he believes his word should be good enough. - If you had been this supervisor, what would you have done? Why? (If Lyons had documented his efforts to accommodate the employee, he would have been halfway home. Of course, the court would still have to decide whether these were reasonable accommodations. But without any documentation, even if they were reasonable accommodations, the most effective weapon for fighting the charges has been lost.)

14 - Would your records help or hurt you if one of your employees charged you company with discrimination? (Are they complete, accurate, and objective? If they are, then you have at your disposal your best line of defense against discrimination charges.) CONCLUDE THE MEETING Even though we can t ignore the fact that most of us may have biases of one sort or another, we can take steps to make sure they don t affect our supervisory actions and decisions on the job. Our company takes its EEO responsibilities under the law very seriously. We believe that a workplace free from discrimination of any kind is a more productive and creative one. It s really up to you to make our EEO policy work. It s up to all of you to create a work environment free of discrimination one in which everyone wins.