Course Description
This
course provides an overview of federal statutes and state-regulated
areas that impact the personnel function. Among topics addressed are
EEO and affirmative action, OSHA, ERISA, FMLA, and ADA; employee
privacy issues (polygraph testing, drug and alcohol testing, employer
searching and monitoring); and wrongful discharge.
Topics and Objectives
The Legal Environment of Employment
- Define what constitutes an "employer" and an "employee" for purposes of application of employment law.
- Analyze the relationship among "employment-at-will," wrongful discharge, and constructive discharge and their applications.
- Explain the discrimination complaint process, including possible outcomes of an employee complaint.
- Review the methods and terminology involved in case analysis and
basic legal research as applicable to employment and discrimination
case law.
Employment Discrimination
- Evaluate the impact of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of
1964 upon the employment environment and the manner in which grievances
may be addressed under the Act.
- Analyze the implications of workplace discrimination, both as to
types of discrimination that are covered by Title VII and its
amendments (PDA, ADA, ADEA), and those that are not.
- Review current law on sexual harassment in terms of addressing complaints in the workplace.
Affirmative Action, Labor Relations, and Major Employment Law Legislation
- Discuss the applicability of affirmative action to certain
employers as compared with the requirements of Equal Employment
Opportunity under Title VII.
- Define workplace responsibilities as impacted by major employment law legislation.
- Identify the appropriate legal manner in which management must respond to union organizing activities.
- Delineate the implications of landmark legislation that contributed to the development of U.S. labor relations.
Job Performance Management and Employee Rights
- Examine the legal considerations of the various types of tests administered in the workplace.
- Interpret the legal implications relating to performance evaluation methods and the regulation of work on the job.
- Compare and contrast the rights of privacy afforded to public and
private sector employees in the workplace, and their implications.
Employee Safety, Health, and Welfare
- Analyze the roles of employers and government agencies in promoting employee safety, health, and welfare.
- Explain the purpose of workers' compensation statutes and the remedies
they make available to workers injured on the job. - Analyze laws that protect employee workplace rights and retirement, savings, and insurance benefits.
