Business

Legal Risk and Opportunity in Employment

Legal Encounter 1

In this situation, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is present. This act makes it unlawful for an employer to hire or discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his /her compensation, terms, conditions or privileges of employment, because of an individuals race color, religion, sex or national origin. This covers hiring, firing, promotions, and all workplace conduct. (Jennings, 2006) Therefore, by terminating Pat without giving him a notice of unsatisfactory performance, this action could be seen as a wrongful termination. According to Newcorp’s personal manual, which had been provided to Pat upon his acceptance of employment, it stated that if the job performance of an employee is unsatisfactory, the employee will be notified of the deficiency and placed on corrective action plan. If the employee’s performance does not improve to a satisfactory level in the specified period of time, termination will follow. (UOPhx Material, 2010) Now because of this being stated in Newcorp’s manual Pat can sue and state that there was a breach of contract, and he was never notified of his performance being unsatisfactory and then placed on a corrective action plan. He would then argue that by him not being placed on a corrective action plan, it was no way to improve his performance. Newcorp should have clarified in the contract that even if they do not present an employee with a corrective action plan, the employee can still be terminated at any time. If this would have been stated Pat would have surely known that his job was not secure.

Legal Encounter 2

In this situation Sexual harassment and Sexual Discrimination are present; meaning VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is present. This acts states that it is unlawful to for an employer to hire or discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against individual with respect to his /her...