Lawsuit Case on Discrimination - Case Study Example

It is illegal for employers to consider several factors during a hiring process. One of the main factors prohibited by the State, Federal and local laws is discrimination. These laws protect employees from discrimination based on race, religion, sex, disability or any other protected characteristics. A job applicant is legally allowed to obtain a discrimination claim if he or she suffers discrimination by the above characteristics.

A recent lawsuit against discrimination during a hiring process involved Palantir Technologies, a private American based Software Company. The U.S Department of Labor sued the company with discrimination charges against Asian applicants during the selection and hiring process for engineering roles. The Department of Labor accused the company of discriminating qualified applicants based on their race. According to the complainant, the Asian applicants were routinely eliminated through telephone interviews and resume screening (Waters, 2017). Although the company denied any wrongdoing, they agreed to pay $1.6 million and offer eight extra positions to applicants of Asian origin. The approved settlement also directed the company to adopt an auditing system that measures the effectiveness of its affirmative action programme.

During the hiring or promotion process, employers are required by law to follow other proper criteria method besides discrimination. In several states, the law prohibits employers from requesting or demanding credit reports during while making job decisions. An employee is entitled to a legal claim if the employee declines his or her application based on their credit reports ("Managing Equal Employment Opportunity," 2017). However, this applies to certain applicants and positions. Law prohibits employees from rejecting candidates who filed for workers compensation with their former employers. State laws also restrict to what extent an employer can consider criminal history to decide whether to hire or promote an employee. Every organization must, therefore, follow the above criteria in selecting an employee to avoid legal claims by employees based on hiring or promotion.

The human resource department of any organization plays a key role in handling ethical and legal issues to ensure equal employment opportunities (EEO) for all employees. Policies on equal job opportunities are expressed in the anti-discrimination laws of the States, Federal, and local laws. It is the responsibility of the human resource manager to monitor the hiring practices of a company to create equal employment opportunities for all (NOE, 2017). Another ethical issue in human resource management pertains to opportunities for new skills. Employers must provide an equal chance to all employees during promotion and training programmes without any discrimination. Also, the human resource department is expected to provide fair working conditions

Palantir Technologys human resource department failed to abide by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) guidelines and therefore violated the ethical conduct. Human resource departments must handle a host of moral and legal issues from the regulations of (EEOC) to the principals and practices of organizations such as Human Resource Management Institute (NOE, 2017). The lawsuit case against Palantir Company served as an example of the need for human resource department to follow EEOC guidelines. Legal trouble for a company in the business world presents challenges to employers as ethics organizations criticize the companies misdeeds. Large companies have adjusted their hiring criteria following the lawsuit against Plantirs Technologies which is a major private company in America. By adjusting their hiring criteria, the companies protect the reputation between them and their consumers and guarantees future potential partners and employees.

References

Managing Equal Employment Opportunity. (2017). SHRM. Retrieved 30 September 2017, from https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/toolkits/pages/managingequalemploymentopportunity.aspx

NOE, R. (2017). FUNDAMENTALS OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (6th ed., pp. 112-120). [S.l.]: MCGRAW-HILL EDUCATION.

Waters, R. (2017). Palantir pays $1.6m in the hiring-discrimination settlement. Ft.com. Retrieved 30 September 2017, from https://www.ft.com/content/3984a0a6-2a01-11e7-9ec8-168383da43b7