Discrimination Always Key Business Concern
Information overload often leads to a person hearing, "Blah, blah, blah." However, as a listener, you should definitely force yourself to hear all information about discrimination and bias in the workplace. What you don't know-and what you fail to implement-can definitely hurt you.
Law firms must observe the legal requirements to operate a workplace free from discrimination based on sex, religion, race, etc., by ensuring that only an individual's skills, experience, and knowledge are factors in making human resource decisions. There is no shortage of cases to drive home the point that if you show bias in your employment practices, you will eventually find yourself on the wrong end of a lawsuit.
As recently as several months ago, discrimination issues again made the news. In July 2014, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) enhanced its pregnancy discrimination guidelines by issuing enforcement guidance. The guidance updates the 1983 manual dealing with discrimination against pregnant workers by covering the requirements of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act and how the Americans with Disabilities Act applies to people with disabilities stemming from pregnancy. The new pregnancy discrimination enforcement guidance covers such items as pregnancy leave, reasonable accommodations, and parental leave.
A perception of unfairness is often inadvertently created in two ways: (1) when employers fail to understand legal requirements and (2) when employers fail to develop clear job descriptions. Because firms by their traditional nature as partnerships are often highly subjective and personalized environments, personnel policies risk pressures and expectations that are more arbitrary than the law allows.
It is your responsibility as an employer to be fully versed about all nondiscrimination issues in employment law. No matter how successful you are as a lawyer, if you fail to follow all applicable employment regulations, your business is doomed from the inside.
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