Ethical Issues in Employment Law

This assignment deals with Employment Law, but there was no option to select that subject.

Option #1: Ethical Issues in Employment Law
You have just been promoted to the Human Resources Department of a Fortune 500 company. Your director asks each of the HR employees to research an employment law issue and draft a memo that discusses that specific issue. Also, he wants to ensure that each employee has a clear understanding of the issue present. Therefore, you are to include in your memo either a specific case that supports this employment law or utilizes your own experience. This experience can stem from professional or personal situations in the business world as an employee or employer. Lastly, your director wants you to include any ethical issues that your company may be confronting in reference to this employment law. Consider employment law with wages and hours, OSHA, age, disabilities, and minors working.

Be sure that your focus is twofold: first, on an area of employment law and second, on a potential ethical issue within that area of law.

If you have not personally or professionally confronted an issue, consider an issue that could arise within the realm of employment law and describe it or search for a case on the internet.

Address the following in your memo:

Identify and clearly define the relevant law, either defining a legal doctrine, provisions of law, or elements of a specific cause of action.
Compare and contrast the applicable law to the employment law issue you identified.
Apply facts from your situation to the applicable law, doctrine, or cause of action studied.
Clearly summarize lessons learned from the week as they apply to your fact pattern and make links to the readings and/or module.
Include new thoughts or ideas based on the module information—this is your reflection/insight, which logically would flow from each information point presented. (Module readings for reference listed below)
Identify and briefly discuss any related ethical issues.
Your memo should be three to four pages in length, not including the title or references pages. Also, include three credible sources in your memo. Example memo to follow separately.

Module Readings:
Required
Chapters 17, 18, 19, & 20 in Business Law Today, The Essentials: Text and Summarized Cases
Brady, B. (2020). An epic change to employment law.
(Links to an external site.)
Journal of Corporation Law, 45(1), 245-261.
Lounsbury, A., & Sweeney, B. (2019). At the intersection of workforce arrangements and employment law.
(Links to an external site.)
Employee Relations Law Journal, 45(3), 44-48.
Recommended
The Department of Labor (DOL) administers and enforces more than 180 federal laws. These mandates and the regulations that implement them cover many workplace activities for about 10 million employers and 125 million workers. This website summarizes the major laws of the DOL and allows students to gain additional information about them: Summary of the Major Laws of the Department of Labor.

Employment discrimination is a form of discrimination by employers based on race, gender, religion, national origin, physical or mental disability, or age. The MindTap Interactive video on employment discrimination will dive further into this important concept.
Ethical issues also arise in the area of employment discrimination and determining whether an employer has a valid cause for any discrimination. The most important discrimination laws include the following:
Title VII of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964
(Links to an external site.)
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
(Links to an external site.)
The Age Discrimination Act
(Links to an external site.)
The Equal Pay Act

Castillo v. Case Farms of Ohio, Inc., 96 F. Supp. 2d 578 (W.D. Tex. 1999)
(Links to an external site.)
This case examines the criteria for if an agency relationship existed and its potential liability.
Kennedy, J. F. (1963, June 11). Radio and television report to the American people on civil rights
(Links to an external site.)
[Audio recording]. https://www.jfklibrary.org/asset-viewer/archives/JFKWHA/1963/JFKWHA-194-001/JFKWHA-194-001
Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, 134 S. Ct. 1623 (2014)
(Links to an external site.)
This case discusses the Equal Protection Clause.
United States Department of Labor. (n.d.). Fair labor standards act advisor: Exemptions.
(Links to an external site.)
https://webapps.dol.gov/elaws/flsa.htm

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