New York
I'm not an attorney and I just happen to know a few things here and there. Not all discrimination and unequal/unfair treatment violates federal and/or state laws that prohibits discrimination. In fact, some discrimination and unfair treatment are absolutely and perfectly legal. You can be treated poorly because you have dogs and your supervisor like cats. You can be terminated because you cheered for the wrong team, for wearing the wrong color tie and etc. Some things that are morally wrong isn't legally prohibited. I am in no way trying to say that treating your workers bad is something I agree with at the same time.
I have a good friend that came to me with a situation and I am coming to this forum for some advice. He works for a manufacturing plant assembly line. He is fairly young and doesn't have much experience in this certain particular field of work. The company is majority made-up of African Americans and he is Caucasian. It would be to no surprise that he's the only one of his race in his section.
His assemble team is made up of 20 people (including him). The company provides a rotation schedule on the assemble line to decrease ergonomic risk. Every hour the employees would move to another workstation. This didn't prevent stress related injury but just decrease the chances as the amount of time one is exposed limited. All of the assemblers maintain the same duties and titles. My friend state that he realized that his bosses were placing him at the most intense station on the line and wouldn't allow him to rotate. He would be working this particular station his whole shift.
He explain to his bosses that his hands were in pain from doing this all day. He also has neuropathy that affects his hands was also explained. One of the managers explained to him that he was more equipped and knowledgeable to handle this section of the line. << (Upon hearing this I said "I told him that it's perfectly legal for your employer to place you any station (regardless of how undesirable it is) if they believe you are more capable of handling it.)
He mentioned this issue to the dept of HR in the facility and wasn't provided with much help. After dealing with this for over a year he decided to file a internal complaint for discrimination. The letter was regarded to race and disability discrimination as well as unequal pay. I can see why he was upset but I can also see the employer side of view as well. He said that the investigation didn't help at all. Allegedly about a 3 week later HR only spoke to him about the issue about unequal pay. He was told (not surprising to me) that he low pay was based on experience. He was never spoken to about the race and disability issue raised in the letter.
I, for one, found this odd little (just a little) because usually (the ones I've seen) the complaint would be told about the determination/conclusion of the investigation. It will either be inconclusive, not found or something along the lines. Disciplinary actions, if any, taken wouldn't be revealed to the complainant and would only be disclosed to the people it's going to affect and anyone on a need to know basis. For a second; I thought that a determination probably wouldn't be made because it involved management but I didn't tell him this.
He made a few points during out conversation which did make some sense from his point.
He said:
All of which he said made sense but his employer gave him assignments and duties that they felt that he was best capable of handling compared to the other workers. He has been contemplating about filing a complaint with an agency externally. Since writing the letter to his employer they've added him to the rotation schedule. I explained to him that they have done steps to remedy the situation and not much can be done about that they did in the past.
I believe the employer is allowed to put their workers were they want to (as long as it not for any reason that is prohibited by law) and the same can be said regarding the pay issue.With that being said I understand that his feeling might be hurt but that is life. << Of course, I didn't tell him that in these particular words. I told him I would do some research and get back to him some time.
So ?'s
1.) Is the employer well within their rights in this situation?
2.) Is it true that the employee have no action (if something was done which was wrong) since the employer fixed the situation?
I'm not an attorney and I just happen to know a few things here and there. Not all discrimination and unequal/unfair treatment violates federal and/or state laws that prohibits discrimination. In fact, some discrimination and unfair treatment are absolutely and perfectly legal. You can be treated poorly because you have dogs and your supervisor like cats. You can be terminated because you cheered for the wrong team, for wearing the wrong color tie and etc. Some things that are morally wrong isn't legally prohibited. I am in no way trying to say that treating your workers bad is something I agree with at the same time.
I have a good friend that came to me with a situation and I am coming to this forum for some advice. He works for a manufacturing plant assembly line. He is fairly young and doesn't have much experience in this certain particular field of work. The company is majority made-up of African Americans and he is Caucasian. It would be to no surprise that he's the only one of his race in his section.
His assemble team is made up of 20 people (including him). The company provides a rotation schedule on the assemble line to decrease ergonomic risk. Every hour the employees would move to another workstation. This didn't prevent stress related injury but just decrease the chances as the amount of time one is exposed limited. All of the assemblers maintain the same duties and titles. My friend state that he realized that his bosses were placing him at the most intense station on the line and wouldn't allow him to rotate. He would be working this particular station his whole shift.
He explain to his bosses that his hands were in pain from doing this all day. He also has neuropathy that affects his hands was also explained. One of the managers explained to him that he was more equipped and knowledgeable to handle this section of the line. << (Upon hearing this I said "I told him that it's perfectly legal for your employer to place you any station (regardless of how undesirable it is) if they believe you are more capable of handling it.)
He mentioned this issue to the dept of HR in the facility and wasn't provided with much help. After dealing with this for over a year he decided to file a internal complaint for discrimination. The letter was regarded to race and disability discrimination as well as unequal pay. I can see why he was upset but I can also see the employer side of view as well. He said that the investigation didn't help at all. Allegedly about a 3 week later HR only spoke to him about the issue about unequal pay. He was told (not surprising to me) that he low pay was based on experience. He was never spoken to about the race and disability issue raised in the letter.
I, for one, found this odd little (just a little) because usually (the ones I've seen) the complaint would be told about the determination/conclusion of the investigation. It will either be inconclusive, not found or something along the lines. Disciplinary actions, if any, taken wouldn't be revealed to the complainant and would only be disclosed to the people it's going to affect and anyone on a need to know basis. For a second; I thought that a determination probably wouldn't be made because it involved management but I didn't tell him this.
He made a few points during out conversation which did make some sense from his point.
He said:
- He was forced to be in pain especially when the rotation schedule was there to reduce pain.
- After explaining his neuropathy condition; he still wasn't able to be on the rotation schedule.
- He had to get daily snarky comments from co-workers and his bosses when he couldn't move so fast because of the pain.
- He said that his knowledge and being equipped to handle that part of the line is understandable. He said one of the things that bothered him was the fact that the other workers were allowed not to do it and it was tolerated. On top of still rewarded their high pay for their experience.
- He felt he had to jump through hoops some things that was provided to other workers without a hassle.
- Not making a determination made him think that management didn't take his complaint seriously.
- He same person that was involved in the situation was the same one conducting the investigation.
All of which he said made sense but his employer gave him assignments and duties that they felt that he was best capable of handling compared to the other workers. He has been contemplating about filing a complaint with an agency externally. Since writing the letter to his employer they've added him to the rotation schedule. I explained to him that they have done steps to remedy the situation and not much can be done about that they did in the past.
I believe the employer is allowed to put their workers were they want to (as long as it not for any reason that is prohibited by law) and the same can be said regarding the pay issue.With that being said I understand that his feeling might be hurt but that is life. << Of course, I didn't tell him that in these particular words. I told him I would do some research and get back to him some time.
So ?'s
1.) Is the employer well within their rights in this situation?
2.) Is it true that the employee have no action (if something was done which was wrong) since the employer fixed the situation?
Discrimination: Is the Employer Well Within Their Rights
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