In my ongoing effort to chronicle in one place (this blog) the major employment laws affecting employers in Virginia and the District of Columbia, here is an overview of the Reconstruction Era Civil Rights Acts as applied to modern-day employment discrimination lawsuits.
As a courtesy to employment lawyers and employers, The Employment Law Chronicle provides links to the text of key Federal, Virginia, and District of Columbia labor and employment laws published on public sites.
The ADA prohibits employment discrimination against "a qualified individual with a disability" because of the disability in regard to job application procedures, hiring, promotion, discharge, compensation, training, or other terms, conditions, and privileges of employment. The ADA also governs medical examinations and disability-related inquiries.
Covered Employers. The ADA applies to education instutitions, state, local, and private-sector employers with 15 or more employees; employment agencies; labor organizations; and joint labor management committees. It does not apply to the federal government or private membership clubs (other than a labor organization). Coverage of multinational employers depends on a variety of factors, as explained here by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
In an effort to promote hiring and promotion of individuals with disabilities in the federal government, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has issued a new question-and-answer guide, which can be found here.
As a courtesy to employment lawyers and employers, The Employment Law Chronicle provides links to the text of key Federal, Virginia, and District of Columbia labor and employment laws published on government sites.
The DC Human Rights Act prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin. sex, age, marital status, personal appearance, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, family responsibilities, genetic information, disability, matriculation, or political affiliation.
As a courtesy to employers and employment lawyers, The Employment Law Chronicle provides links to the text of key Federal, Virginia, and District of Columbia labor and employment laws published on public sites.
The Virginia Human Rights Act prohibits discrimination because of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, age, marital status, or disability.
The ADA requires covered employers to make a reasonable accommodation to the known disability of a qualified applicant or employee if the accommodation would not impose an "undue hardship" on the employer's business.
In general, undue hardship means an action that requires significant difficulty or expense, when considered in light of these factors:
(i) the nature and cost of the accommodation needed under the ADA;(ii) the overall financial resources of the facility or facilities involved in the provision of the reasonable accommodation; the number of persons employed at such facility; the effect on expenses and resources, or the impact otherwise of such accommodation upon the operation of the facility;
(iii) the overall financial resources of the covered entity; the overall size of the business of a covered entity with respect to the number of its employees; the number, type, and location of its facilities; and
(iv) the type of operation or operations of the covered entity, including the composition, structure, and functions of the workforce of such entity; the geographic separateness, administrative, or fiscal relationship of the facility or facilities in question to the covered
entity.
The ADA protects employees or applicants who satisfy the test of being a "qualified individual with a disability," which means an individual with a disability who, with or without reasonable accommodation, can perform the essential functions of the job. If an employee or applicant satisfies the definition of being a qualified individual with a disability, then the employer must provide a reasonable accommodation unless doing so would impose an undue hardship on the employer's operations.
Employers in Virginia, the District of Columbia and nationwide need to ensure that testing and selection procedures used to screen job applicants or existing employees for advancement or other opportunities do not have a discriminatory impact on the basis of race, sex, age, disability or other protected category. In recent years, testing and selection criteria have been a prime target of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's (EEOC) enforcement efforts. For example, in November 2006, the Eighth Circuit affirmed a $3 million judgment in EEOC v. Dial Corp resulting from a strength test that appeared to have excluded women from entry-level jobs. In 2007, Ford Motor Company, two of its affiliates, and the UAW entered into a $1.6 million settlement stemming from cognitive apprenticeship tests that appeared to have excluded African Americans. That settlement came on the heels of an $8.5 million settlement in a related case.
In the wake of these multi-million dollar judgments and settlements, the EEOC issued a fact sheet to assist employers in understanding how to avoid employment discrimination claims based on tests and other selection criteria.
