Ethics and social responsibility of management

¶ … Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended by the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, and the Civil Rights Act of 1991, is the most important civil rights legislation in modern history of the United States. The Act of July 2, 1964 (Civil Rights Act of 1964), Public Law 88-352, 78 STAT 241, in eleven titles, enforced the constitutional right to vote, to confer jurisdiction upon the district courts of the United States to provide injunctive relief against discrimination in public accommodations, to authorize the Attorney General to institute suits to protect constitutional rights in public facilities and public education, to extend the Commission on Civil Rights, to prevent discrimination in federally assisted programs, and to establish a Commission on Equal Employment Opportunity.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination in many more aspects of the employment relationship. It applies to most employers engaged in interstate commerce with more than 15 employees, labor organizations, and employment agencies. The Act prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Sex includes pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions. It makes it illegal for employers to discriminate in hiring, discharging, compensation, or terms, conditions, and privileges of employment. Employment agencies may not discriminate when hiring or referring applicants. Labor Organizations are also prohibited from basing membership or union classifications on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

A review of the history of affirmative action since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 suggests that what began as non-preferential actions to offset the consequences of racial discrimination moved toward a range of preferential actions that visited discrimination on non-minority citizens. Recent legal decisions suggest that American society does not favor the use of racial preferences. (Fullinwider 1997) During the 1970s, the use of racial quotas and set asides led to challenges to the Supreme Court of reverse discrimination. In the 1972 Griggs v. Duke Power case, the Supreme Court ruled that employment policies that tend to concentrate nonwhite workers in low- paying jobs do not necessarily violate federal civil rights law. This was followed in 1980 with the Fullilove vs. Klutznick. Supreme Court case that struck down the Richmond, Va., set-aside plans for minorities.

Opposition to affirmative action in California culminated in the passage in 1996 of the California Civil Rights Initiative (Proposition 209), which prohibited all government agencies and institutions from giving preferential treatment to individuals based on their race or sex. (Allen 1998) The U.S. Supreme Court in effect upheld the constitutionality of Proposition 209 in November 1997 by refusing to hear a challenge to its enforcement. Legislation similar to Proposition 209 was subsequently proposed in other states.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964, seen as the beginning of affirmative action, was intended ensure the elimination of racially discriminatory practices. The Supreme Court has struck down Title VII as meaning preferential treatment. The principle of equal treatment is the moral foundation upon which the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment ultimately rests; our Supreme Court has repeatedly emphasized that the rights guaranteed by that clause are individual rights, the rights of persons and not the rights of groups.