Equal Employment Opportunity and Human Resource Management

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Enhancements to the EEO Act include Burden of Proof, Money Damages, Mixed Motives, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. With these added specifications and laws, human resource management must enhance their systems in order to document and record all pertinent information accurately as it occurs with an employee who may be involved in a situation. Burden of proof lies on the employer once an employee makes a claim of discrimination against the employer. The employer that is challenged must prove why an activity was required of an employee or that an alleged situation did not occur as the employee states (Dessler, 2013). Money damages are now afforded to victims who win a claim of discrimination in the workplace. The human resource management team must protect the company from expensive lawsuits that could cost the company large amounts of money rather than just reinstating an employee to their former position.

Under new laws, an employer cannot avoid liability by proving it would have taken the same action, such as terminating an employee, even without the discriminatory motive (Dessler, 2013). The employer cannot claim the same outcome for the employees would have come about without the discrimination claim. There must be proof of the situation and consequences which falls upon the human resource management team of the employer to gather all information and prepare a case for the company in defense of the claim.

Conclusion

The Human Resource management department of any company has a very important role for serving the company and for serving the employees in protection against discrimination in the workplace. There are laws that have been established against discrimination of employees since the early 1940s which started with government agencies and have expanded into private industry and into many groups of employees. Discrimination laws protect minorities, differences in race, age, disabilities, sex, national origin, pregnancy and family situations, safety and health in the workplace and a variety of other areas. It is the major function of the human resource department to be specialists in the area of these laws in order for the hiring, firing, discipline and training is completed within the law and avoids the possibility of discrimination claims against the company.

References

EEOC (2001). The law. Retrieved from http://eeoc.gov/eeoc/history/35th/milestones/index.html

Dessler, G. (2013). Human Resource Management. (13th ed.). Prentice- Hall. Retrieved from http://online.vitalsource.com/books/9781256913573/Root/1

HG.org Legal Resources (2014) Human Resources Law. Retrieved from http://www.hg.org/human-resources-law.html

Human Resource Management and the Law (2014). Retrieved from http://www.inc.com/encyclopedia/human-resources-management-and-the-law.html

Kadian-Baumeyer, K. (2014). Human resources management (HRM): Laws & regulations. Retrieved from http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/human-resource-management-hrm-laws-regulations.html#lesson

United States Department of Labor (2014) Summary of the major laws of the department of labor. Retrieved fromhttp://www.dol.gov/opa/aboutdol/lawsprog.htm