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76 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back
employment at will
A common law doctrine under which either party may terminate an employment relationship at any time for any reason, unless a contract specifies otherwise.
minimum wage
The lowest wage, either by government regulation or union contract, that an employer may pay an hourly worker.
vesting
Under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, a pension plan becomes vested when an employee has a legal right to the benefits purchased with the employer's contributions, even if the employee is no longer working for this employer.
whistleblowing
An employee's disclosure to government, the press, or upper-management authorities that the employer is engaged in unsafe or illegal activities.
workers' compensation law
State statutes establishing an administrative procedure for compensating workers' injuries that arise out of—or in the course of—their employment, regardless of fault.
wrongful discharge
An employer's termination of an employee's employment in violation of an employment contract or laws that protect employees.
prima facie case
A case in which the plaintiff has produced sufficient evidence of his or her conclusion that the case can go to a jury; a case in which the evidence compels the plaintiff's conclusion if the defendant produces no evidence to disprove it.
affirmative action
Job-hiring policies that give special consideration to members of protected classes in an effort to overcome present effects of past discrimination.
bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ)
Identifiable characteristics reasonably necessary to the normal operation of a particular business. These characteristics can include gender, national origin, and religion, but not race.
business necessity
A defense to allegations of employment discrimination in which the employer demonstrates that an employment practice that discriminates against members of a protected class is related to job performance.
constructive discharge
A termination of employment brought about by making an employee's working conditions so intolerable that the employee reasonably feels compelled to leave.
disparate-impact discrimination
A form of employment discrimination that results from certain employer practices or procedures that, although not discriminatory on their face, have a discriminatory effect.
disparate-treatment discrimination
A form of employment discrimination that results when an employer intentionally discriminates against employees who are members of protected classes.
employment discrimination
Treating employees or job applicants unequally on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, gender, age, or disability; prohibited by federal statutes.
protected class
A class of persons with identifiable characteristics who historically have been victimized by discriminatory treatment for certain purposes. Depending on the context, these characteristics include age, color, gender, national origin, race, and religion.
seniority system
In regard to employment relationships, a system in which those who have worked longest for the company are first in line for promotions, salary increases, and other benefits; they are also the last to be laid off if the workforce must be reduced.
sexual harassment
In the employment context, the granting of job promotions or other benefits in return for sexual favors or language or conduct that is so sexually offensive that it creates a hostile working environment.
tangible employment action
A significant change in employment status, such as firing or failing to promote an employee, reassigning the employee to a position with significantly different responsibilities, or effecting a significant change in employment benefits.
closed shop
firm that requires union membership as a condition of employment
Labor Management Relations Act
proscribe certain unfair union practices, such as the closed shop
union shop
firm that does not require union membership as a prerequisite for employment but can, and usually does, require that workers join the union after a specified amount of time on the job
featherbedding
causing employers to hire more employees than necessary
right-to-work laws
laws making it illegal for union membership to be required for continued employment in any establishment. Union shops are illegal in the twenty-two states that have these laws.
Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act
established an employee bill of rights and reporting requirements for union activities. Strictly regulates unions' internal business procedures.
hot-cargo agreements
employers voluntarily agree with unions not to handle, use, or deal in goods of other employers produced by nonunion employees. Outlawed by LMRDA
autorization card
states that the worker desires to have a certain union represent the workforce
collective bargaining
process by which labor and management negotiate the terms and conditions of employment, including wages, benefits, working conditions, and other matters. Allows union representatives elected by the union members to speak on their behalf at the bargaining table.
strike
unionized employees leave their jobs and refuse to work.
Federal Unemployment Tax Act
created a state-administered system that provides unemployment compensation to eligible individuals
Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA)
prohibits an employer from eliminating a worker's medical, optical, or dental insurance on the voluntary or involuntary termination of the worker's employment
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
contains provisions that affect employer-sponsored group health plans
Electronic Communications Privacy Act
amended existing federal wiretapping law to cover electronic forms of communications, such as communications via cell phones and e-mail. prohibits the intentional interception of any wire or electronic communication or the intentional disclosure or use of the information obtained by the interception.
Stored Communication Act
prohibits intentional and unauthorized access to stored electronic communications and sets forth criminal and civil sanctions for violators.
Employee Polygraph Protection Act
prohibits employers from requiring or causing employees or job applicants to take lie-detector tests or suggesting or requesting that they do so. Also restricts employers' ability to use or ask about the results of any lie-detector test or to take any negative employment action based on the results.
Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA)
provided amnesty to certain groups of illegal aliens living in the United States at the time. Also established a system that sanctions employers that hire illegal immigrants who lack work authorization. Makes it illegal to hire, recruit, or refer for a fee someone not authoried to work in this country. Employers must perform I-9 verifications for new hires, including those hired as "contractors" or "day workers" if they work under the employer's direct supervision.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
federal agency that enforces IRCA rules. Has a general inspection program that conducts random compliance audits. If investigation reveals a possible violation, they will bring an administrative action and issue a Notice of Intent to Fine, which sets out the charges against the employer.
Immigration Act of 1990
placed caps on number of visas (entry permits) that can be issued to immigrants each year
Norris-Laguardia Act
protects peaceful strikes, picketing, and boycotts. Declared a national policy permitting employees to organize
National Labor Relations Act
established the rights of employees to engage in collective bargaining and to strike. Specifically defined a number of employer practices as unfair to labor:
1.Interference with the efforts of employees to form, join, or assist labor organizations or to engage in concerted activities for their mutual aid or protection.
2. An employer's domination of a labor organization or contribution of financial of other support to it.
3. Discrimination in the hiring of or the awarding of tenure to employess for reason of union affiliation.
4. Discrimination against employees for filing charges under the act or giving testimony under the act.
5. Refusal to bargaincollectively with the duly designated representative of the employees.
Social Security Act
povides old-age retirement, survivors', and disability insurance
Medicare
federal government health-insurance program for people sixty-five years of age and older and for some under age sixty-five who are disabled
Employee Retirement Income Security Act
empowers a branch of the U.S. Department of Labor to enforce its provisions governing employers who have private pension funds for their employees
Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act
requires large businesses to provide sixty days' notice before implementing a mass layoff or closing a plant that employs more than fifty full-time workers
Family and Medical aleave Act
allows employees to take time off work for family or medical reasons
Occupational Safety and Health Act
administered by OSHA and attempts to ensure safe and healthful working conditions for practically every employee in the country
Implied employment
Some courts have held that an implied employment contract exists between an employer and employee. If an employee is fired outside the terms of the implied contract, he or she may succeed in an action for breach of contract even though no written employment contract exists. EXAMPLE: BDI Enterprise's employment manual and personnel bulletin both state that, as a matter of policy, workers will be dismissed only for good cause. If an employee reasonably expects BDI to follow this policy, a court may find that there is an implied contract based on the terms stated in the manual and bulletin.
Family and medical leave act
The FMLA requries employers who have fifty or more employees to provide employees with up to twelve weeks of unpaid family or medical leave during any twelve-month period (twenty-six weeks for military caregiver leave)
Occupational safety and health act
The act imposes on employers a general duty to keep workplaces safe. The act also imposes record-keeping and reporting requirements and requires that employers post certain notices in the workplace.
State workers' compensation laws
State statutes establishing an administrative procedure for compensating workers for injuries that arise out of-or in the course of-their employment, regardless of fault. The only requirements are:
1)The existence of an employment relationship.
2)An accidental injury that occurred on the job or in the course of employment, regardless of fault.
Private pension plans
The federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act that establishes standards for the management of employer-provided pension plans.
Discrimination statutes
Only protects those that are within the definition of the protective class.
Cobra
Prohibits an employer from eliminating a worker's medical, optical, or dental insurance on the voluntary or involuntary termination of the worker's employment. Only workers fired for gross misconduct are excluded from protection. The worker does not receive the insurance coverage for free.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
Prohibits job discrimination against employees, on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, or gender at any stage of employment.
The age discrimination in employment act
Prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of age against individuals forty years of age or older.
Marital status
Means whether a person is single, married, remarried, divorced, separated, or surviving spouse. In employment cases it includes protection against discrimination on the bases of the identity, situation, actions, or beliefs of a spouse or former spouse.
Sex
Includes pregnancy, childbirth, and disabilities relation to pregnancy or childbirth.
2 types of discrimination
1)Disparate-treatment discrimination-A form of employment discrimination that results when an employer intentionally discriminates against employees who are member of protected classes. EXAMPLE: A woman applies for employment with a construction firm and is rejected. If she sues on the basis of disparate-treatment discrimination in hiring, she must show that (1) she is a member of a protected class (2) she applied and was qualified for the job in question (3) she was rejected by the employer, and (4) the employer continued to seek applicants for the position or filled the position with a person not in a protected class.

2)Disparate-impact discrimination-A form of employment discrimination that results from certain employer practices or procedures that, although not discriminatory on their face, have a discriminatory effect. EXAMPLE: job description-needs a bachelors degree in accounting for a shoe store cashier job (she's thinking about the future because she wants them to take over books too) This is disparate-impact discrimination in this case race, not many blacks do accounting.
Discrimination based on gender
Employers are forbidden from discriminating against employees on the basis of gender. Employers are prohibited from classifying jobs as male or female and from advertising in help-wanted columns that are designated male or female unless the employer can prove that the gender of the applicant is essential to the job. Employers also cannot have separate male and female seniority lists or refuse to promote employees based on gender. EXAMPLE: In 2009, the EEOC filed a lawsuit against an Indiana plastics manufacturer, Polycon Industries, Inc. The EEOC alleged that the company reserved higher-paying production jobs for male employees and refused to promote female workers to these jobs because of their gender. The EEOC decided to pursue the case when it received complaints from women who had applied for production jobs but had never even been interviewed.
Equal pay act 1963
Prohibits gender-based wage discrimination by employers. For the act's equal pay requirements to apply, the male and female employees must work at the same establishment doing similar work. This act was later again addressed in 2009 as the Paycheck Fairness Act which clarified employers' defenses and prohibited the use of gender-based differentials in assessing an employee's education, training, or experience. The Act also provided additional remedies for wage discrimination.
Discrimination based on disability
Designed to eliminate discriminatory employment practices that prevent otherwise qualified workers with disabilities from fully participating in the national labor force. Basically, the ADA requires that employers "reasonably accommodate" the needs of persons with disabilities unless to do would cause the employer to suffer an "undue hardship." EXAMPLE: An employee couldn't open the door because it was too heave, so the employer should loosen the screw to not get sued.
Disability
Any condition or characteristic that renders a person a disabled person. The ADA defines disability as (1) a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of such individuals (2) a record of such impairment (3) being regarded as having such an impairment-don't have that impairment and never did, ppl just think you got it.

EXAMPLES: FDR had polio and couldn't use his legs, kept it a secret,Lincoln was color blind and depressed, Jack Kennedy had pain all the time, John Nash was mentally ill but won a prize in economics, Door to Door movie.
Types of sexual harassment
1)Quid pro quo is a Latin phrase that is often translated to mean "something in exchange for something else." Quid pro quo harassment occurs when sexual favors are demanded in return for job opportunities, promotions, salary increases, and the like.
2)Hostile environment harassment occurs when "the workplace is permeated with discriminatory intimidation, ridicule, and insult, that is sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of the victim's employment and create an abusive working environment.
Harassment by supervisors, co-workers, and nonemployees
*An employer is liable for a supervisor's harassment of employees even though the employer was unaware of the behavior.
*When the harassment of co-workers, rather than supervisors, creates a hostile working environment, an employee may still have a cause of action against the employer. Normally, though, the employer will be held liable only if the employer knew, or should have known, about the harassment and failed to take immediate action.
*Occasionally, a court may also hold an employer liable for harassment by nonemployees if the employer knew about the harassment and failed to take corrective action. EXAMPLE: Gordon, who owns and manages a Great Bites restaurant, knows that one of his regular customers, Dean, repeatedly harasses Sharon, a waitress. If Gordon does nothing and permits the harassment to continue, he may be liable even though Dean is not an employee of the restaurant.
Employment at Will
1 . —Under this common law doctrine, either party may terminate the
employment relationship at any time and for any reason (“at will”). This doctrine is still in
widespread use throughout the United States, although federal and state statutes prevent the
doctrine from being applied in certain circumstances.
2. —To protect employees from some of the harsh
results of the employment-at-will doctrine, courts have made exceptions to the doctrine on the
basis of contract theory, tort theory, and public policy. Whistleblowers have occasionally
received protection under the common law for reasons of public policy. Most states have
passed whistleblower statutes specifically to protect employees who “blow the whistle” on
their employers from subsequent retaliation by those employers.
3. —Whenever an employer discharges an employee in violation of an
employment contract or statutory law protecting employees, the employee may bring a suit for
wrongful discharge.
Wage and Hour Laws
1 . —Requires contractors and subcontractors working on federal
government construction projects to pay their employees “prevailing wages.”
2. —Requires that employees of firms that contract with federal agencies
be paid a minimum wage and overtime pay.
3. —Extended wage-hour requirements to cover all employers
whose activities affect interstate commerce plus certain other businesses. The act has specific
requirements in regard to child labor, maximum hours, and minimum wages.
Labor Unions
1 . —Protects peaceful strikes, picketing, and primary boycotts.
2. —Established the rights of employees to engage in
collective bargaining and to strike; also defined specific employer practices as unfair to labor.
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) was created to administer and enforce the act.
3. —Proscribes certain unfair union practices, such as the
closed shop.
4. —Established an employee bill of
rights and reporting requirements for union activities.
Worker Health
and Safety
1 . —Requires employers to meet specific safety and
health standards that are established and enforced by the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration (OSHA).
2. —Establish an administrative procedure for compensating
workers who are injured in accidents that occur on the job, regardless of fault.
Income Security
1 . —The Social Security Act of 1 935 provides for old-age
(retirement), survivors, and disability insurance. Both employers and employees must make
contributions under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) to help pay for benefits that
will partially make up for the employees’ loss of income on retirement. The Social Security
Administration also administers Medicare, a health-insurance program for older or disabled
persons.
2. —The federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1 974
establishes standards for the management of employer-provided pension plans.
3. —The Federal Unemployment Tax Act of 1 935 created a system that
provides unemployment compensation to eligible individuals. Covered employers are taxed to
help defray the costs of unemployment compensation.
4. —The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA) of 1 985 requires
employers to give employees, on termination of employment, the option of continuing their
medical, optical, or dental insurance coverage for a certain period.
Family and
Medical Leave
The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1 993 requires employers with fifty or more
employees to provide their employees (except for key employees) with up to twelve weeks of
unpaid family or medical leave during any twelve-month period to care for a newborn baby, an
adopted child, or a foster child; or when the employee or the employee’s spouse, child, or parent
has a serious health condition requiring care.
Immigration Law
1 . —Prohibits employers from hiring illegal
immigrants; administered by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
2. —Limits the number of legal immigrants entering the United States by
capping the number of visas (entry permits) that are issued each year.
Title VII of the Civil
Rights Act of 1 964
Title VII prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion, or
gender.
1 . —Employees must file a claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
(EEOC). The EEOC may sue the employer on the employee’s behalf; if not, the employee may
sue the employer directly.
2. —Title VII prohibits both intentional (disparate-treatment) and
unintentional (disparate-impact) discrimination. Disparate-impact discrimination occurs when
an employer’s practice, such as hiring only persons with a certain level of education, has the
effect of discriminating against a class of persons protected by Title VII. Title VII also extends to
discriminatory practices, such as various forms of sexual harassment.
3. —If a plaintiff proves that unlawful discrimination
occurred, he or she may be awarded reinstatement, back pay, and retroactive promotions.
Damages (both compensatory and punitive) may be awarded for intentional discrimination.
Discrimination
Based on Age
The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) of 1 967 prohibits employment discrimination
on the basis of age against individuals forty years of age or older. Procedures for bringing a case
under the ADEA are similar to those for bringing a case under Title VII.
Discrimination
Based on Disability
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1 990 prohibits employment discrimination against
persons with disabilities who are otherwise qualified to perform the essential functions of the
jobs for which they apply.
1 . —To prevail on a claim under the ADA, the plaintiff must show that
she or he has a disability, is otherwise qualified for the employment in question, and was
excluded from the employment solely because of the disability. Procedures under the ADA are
similar to those required in Title VII cases; remedies are also similar to those under Title VII.
2. —The ADA defines the term as a physical or mental impairment
that substantially limits one or more major life activities, a record of such impairment, or being
regarded as having such an impairment.
3. —Employers are required to reasonably accommodate the needs
of persons with disabilities. Reasonable accommodations may include altering job-application
procedures, modifying the physical work environment, and permitting more flexible work
schedules.
Defenses to
Employment
Discrimination
If a plaintiff proves that employment discrimination occurred, employers may avoid liability by
successfully asserting certain defenses. Employers may assert that the discrimination was required
for reasons of business necessity, to meet a bona fide occupational qualification, or to maintain a
legitimate seniority system. Evidence of prior employee misconduct acquired after the employee
has been fired is not a defense to discrimination.
Affirmative Action
Affirmative action programs attempt to “make up” for past patterns of discrimination by giving
members of protected classes preferential treatment in hiring or promotion. Increasingly, such
programs are being strictly scrutinized by the courts and struck down as violating the Fourteenth
Amendment.
State Statutes
Generally, state laws also prohibit the kinds of discrimination prohibited by federal statutes. State
laws may provide for more extensive protection and remedies than federal laws. Also, some
states, such as California and Washington, have banned state-sponsored affirmative action
programs.