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What are the major federal anti-discrimination laws?
Title VII prohibits discrimination in employment based on race, sex, color, national origin or religion.
The ADEA prohibits discrimination based on age (if over forty). The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
prohibits discrimination based on actual or perceived disability. South Carolina state law also protects
employees from discrimination based on their use of tobacco products.
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How do I know if an action is discriminatory in violation of the law?
Not all discriminatory actions are forbidden by law. The law only prohibits certain reasons for
discrimination when it is based on a person's protected status such as race, color, religion, national
origin, sex, age or disability.
For example, an employer could refuse to hire anyone that was left-handed without violating any laws. If an
employer decides to fire everyone over the age of forty, or because they are Hispanic, then such actions would be
illegal and subject the employer to potential liability.
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What qualifies as a "disability" under the ADA?
The ADA defines someone as an individual with a disability if the following applies:
- The person has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity; or
- has a record of having such a physical or mental impairment; or
- is regarded or treated as if they had such an impairment.
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How is sexual harassment defined?
The EEOC defines sexual harassment as "unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or
physical conduct of a sexual nature...when...submission to or rejection of such conduct is used as the basis for
employment decisions...or such conduct has the purpose or effect of...creating an intimidating, hostile or
offensive working environment."
Sexual harassment consists of two types of prohibited conduct:
- quid pro quo – when submission to harassment is used as the basis for employment decisions (ex: hiring, firing, promotion); or
- hostile environment – when harassment creates an offensive working environment
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What is hostile environment harassment?
This occurs when an employee is subjected to comments of a sexual nature, offensive sexual materials, or
unwelcome physical contact as a regular part of the work environment.
Generally speaking, a single isolated
incident will not be considered hostile environment harassment unless it is extremely outrageous and egregious
conduct. The courts look to see whether the conduct is both serious and frequent.
Supervisors, managers, co-workers and even customers can be responsible for creating a hostile environment.
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