Legitimate and non-discriminatory

Scenario

Janet Johnson, an African American woman, has been working at the Tennessee Hydroelectric plant for 15 years. During that time, his performance reviews have been exemplary. She decided to apply for the new plant foreman position. Although she felt that she was eminently qualified for the position, she also was growing tired of a certain good old boy culture at the plant. For years, the plant has had a culture of highly lewd “jokes,” and many of the employees had also engaged in inappropriate touching of female employees. The plant had an anti-harassment policy on record, but Janet’s boss shrugged and said “boys will be boys” when she reported the harassment to him.

Competition for the position was fierce. But ultimately, Jose Martinez, a Chilean man, received the position. Jose had 7 years of experience. Unbeknownst to the applicants the promotion board secretly ran a credit check on the applicants. Janet credit score came in as lower as average, and this factored into the board’s decision. Although he met the qualifications of the position, one of the hiring managers told Janet in confidence that Janet was the most qualified person for the job. And the other managers had applied a racial preference on Jose’s behalf due to there never having been a Latino manager at the plant even though Latino’s represented 35% of employees at the plant. Janet sues the plant for disparate treatment, disparate impact, and sexual harassment under Title VII.

Questions

1. List the elements of disparate treatment and apply them to this case. Can Janet prove a prima facie case? How would the plant rebuff these charges? Who would ultimately prevail?

2. List the elements of a disparate impact case and apply them to this case? Will Janet prevail on this charge?

3. List the elements of the sexual harassment case and apply them to this case? Can the plant establish an affirmative defense?

4. If the plant argues that it applied a racial preference to Jose to correct a manifest imbalance at the plant of underutilization of certain minorities, will the plant prevail? Why or why not?

5. Was it legal to use the credit check as a factor in the promotion decision the way that it was done here? Why or why not?

Part 2

QUESTION 1

List and briefly describe (in your own words) the three main reasons for government regulation of businesses.

QUESTION 2

List and describe (in your own words) the six principles for organizations to become an Employer of Choice.

QUESTION 3

List and describe (in your own words) three of the crucial keys to development of an effective ethics program.

QUESTION 4

.List and explain (in your own words) the benefits of government regulation of business.

QUESTION 5

List the six rights of the consumer and explain (in your own words) why each one is important.

Answer preview

The first step is to identify the practice in contention. In Janet’s case, this will be the promotion’s board practice of running credit checks on applicants without their knowledge and using the results to inform its decision on whether to promote an applicant or not. After this, Janet will have to demonstrate the harm she suffered, which in this case, it resulted in Janet not getting promoted. Janet will also have to demonstrate that this practice adversely affects her as a protected class member compared to other employees who are non-protected class members. Finally, Janet will prove that the harm suffered was occasioned by the promotion board’s practice. In Janet’s case, the board ran a credit check on her, leading to the discovery that she had

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Legitimate and non-discriminatory
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