Effects of legal and regulatory requirements on human resource processes

Common Sense

In the United States of America, the workplace used to be a serious location, but one where warmth and friendship could develop. Perhaps even romance could bloom between persons who worked in the same office. When someone was slightly injured, a band-aid would be placed on the cut or a sprained ankle would be taped up and that would be the end of it. However, that is not the case in the modern age because people are so overly eager to get money for injury or incident. When someone is hurt nowadays at the workplace or a young man asks a girl for coffee, it is not common sense that serves as the driving force, but the desire for money and the ability to sue. This is a very litigious age and people and businesses are being sued for ridiculous amounts of money over issues which is the past could have been dealt with by compromise and understanding. To a large extent, common sense and compassion in workplace have been replaced by litigation.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was a government department founded in 1965 and created to prevent and punish discrimination complaints which are made in the workplace regarding race, religion, gender, age, disability, and all other forms of discrimination. Since its creation, the commission has dealt with a multitude of complaints against various businesses and employers who may or may not have committed discriminatory actions. The lawsuits which have come as a result of the Commission's existence have led some to believe that the department is not helping the country or its people, but is instead making it easier for under-skilled individuals to get jobs for which they are not adept to perform. In one such case a business was told that ordering applicants to have a high school diploma was a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (Boyer 2012).

There is a record of employers being threatened with litigation if they do not employ different persons who may not be appropriate candidates, such as an ex-convict who was applying for a job in a bank and was rejected because of his criminal record. The bank had to deal with the commission and complaints that they had discriminatory hiring practices. In April of 2012, the Commission made a determination that makes it more difficult for potential employers to use findings from a background check to discount applicants with a history of criminal convictions (Greenhouse 2012). According to an article in The New York Times written by Steven Greenhouse (2012), "The commission said that while employers may legally consider criminal records in hiring decisions, a policy that excludes all applicants with a conviction could violate employment discrimination laws because it could have a disparate impact on racial and ethnic minorities" (page 1).

Since the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, there have been many causes for litigation, often on behalf of an individual against a group or business of some kind. In 2010, a San Francisco newspaper reported that a man named Craig Thomas Yates, who was physically disabled and forced to use a wheelchair had gone on a kind of crusade against small businesses in the area who are not compliant with the ADA rules (Selna 2010). These businesses, such as the owner of Thidwick Books Lea Dimon, have claimed that Yates is not suing the people out of a desire to create change, but for his own financial gain. Whether or not this is true is unimportant because the businesses are not in compliance with the ADA. Such instances are indicative of one of the negative consequences of the legislation. The law was designed to prevent those with disabilities from being discriminated against. Although this law was created with the best intentions, Yates shows how the law can be used to subvert the intention and make selfish gain.

Since the creation of the Department of Homeland Security has been the target of a great deal of controversy. One of the responsibilities of the department is to investigate all potential dangers to the people of the United States of America by internal or external sources. However, they have also been linked with the Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) and have taken some responsibility in capturing and detaining illegal immigrants. This has led to a bevy of lawsuits on behalf of the illegal immigrants by organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) who claim that the department has been overriding its authority by detaining them. Additionally, there have been lawsuits against the department on behalf of Muslim Americans who claim the department uses racial bias to investigate potential terrorist attacks.