Discrimination in Any Aspect of Employment Is Illegal

By Susan M. Heathfield
Human Resources Expert

Discrimination is adverse work treatment of an employee or prospective employee

based on a class or category of which the employee is a member. This is
differentiated from employment treatment that is based on the employee's
individual merit.
Discrimination in the workplace is the act of treating a particular group or person
differently based solely on a protected classification.
Discrimination in employment is illegal according to Title VII of the Civil Rights
Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color,
religion, sex, or national origin.
Workplace discrimination is prohibited by law on the basis of the following
characteristics. While state laws may differ, the federal laws prohibit
discrimination in employment for:

Age

Race

Gender or sex

Religion

National origin

Physical disability

Color

Pregnancy
Growing in popularity in various states and at the Federal level are laws, law suits
and opinions that discrimination in the workplace should be prohibited also for
sexual orientation, weight, and genetic information.

Employment practices that are considered to be discrimination involve any biased

behavior in employee selection, hiring, job assignment, compensation, promotion,
employment termination, setting wages and compensation, testing, training,
apprenticeships, internships, retaliation, and various types of harassment that are
based on these protected classifications.
Additional protections exist against discrimination under Federal laws. Protections
from discrimination include the following.

Harassment in employment settings of people based on age, race, color,

religion, sex, national origin, disability, or genetic information is prohibited.

Retaliation against a person for filing a charge of discrimination, participating in

an investigation of alleged discrimination, or opposing discriminatory practices is
prohibited.

Employment decisions based on stereotypes or assumptions about people who

are included in any of the classifications are prohibited.

Employment opportunities may not be denied to a person based on their

relationship to or association with any individual who is protected under these
classifications.
New vocabulary:

Hiring: contratacin

Setting: fijar, establecer

Internships: pasantas

Wage: Salarios
Apprenticeships: aprendizaje

Exercise:
1.- Answer the following questions according to the reading:
A.- Which are the employment practices considered discriminatory?
Seleccin de personal, contratacin, asignacin de trabajo, remuneracin,
promocin,

terminacin

del

empleo,

la

fijacin

de

salarios

compensaciones, pruebas, capacitacin, aprendizaje, pasantas, represalia, y

diversos tipos de acoso que se basan en estas clasificaciones protegidas.

B- Is there any additional protection? Explain

Bajo las leyes federales existen protecciones contra la discriminacin estas
son los siguientes:

Est prohibido el acoso en los entornos laborales de las personas en

cuanto a la

edad, raza, color, religin, sexo, origen nacional,

discapacidad o informacin gentica.

Est prohibido represalias contra una persona por presentar una

denuncia de discriminacin, participar en una investigacin de una
presunta discriminacin, u oponerse a prcticas discriminatorias.

Se prohben las decisiones de empleo basadas en estereotipos o

suposiciones acerca de las personas.

Las oportunidades de empleo no se les puede negar a una persona en

base a su relacin o asociacin con cualquier persona que est
protegida en estas clasificaciones.

2.- Pay attention to the underline pronouns and point out their references in the
text.
3.- Make a list with the words ending in ing and say how do you understand each
one.
Participating= participar
Opposing= oponerse
Following=siguiente
Hiring= contratacin
Testing= prueba
Training= formacin

4.- Look at the text and find the synonyms and antonyms from the following words.
Synonyms
Evaluation = investigation
Education = training

Antonyms
Permitted = prohibited
Ability = disability