How to Avoid Discrimination Claims

There is no sure fire way to avoid discrimination claims in the workplace. However, there are some steps that you can take, to protect yourself from being accused of discriminatory business practices,

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Treat all employees the same. Be fair and be consistent. If you fire an employee or face a claim of discrimination and the employee sues, and the jury is convinced that you treated a certain race or gender differently you could very well lose.

2. Keep careful records. If you fire an employee for business reasons you can win a discrimination claim if you have documentation. Keep records of discipline, performance problems, counseling sessions, and any misconduct.

3. Examine the demographics of your workplace. If the employee is a minority in your business chances are higher that a claim will be filed. For example: If you fired a woman and she is the only one in that job and the rest are all men. She can say you fired her for being a woman and you wanted men in the position. Your reasons for firing her or taking disciplinary action against her should have records to back this up. If not you could be in trouble.

4. No statements should ever be made about race, religion, gender, age or disability. If you have in the past and then fire an employee for cause, this could come back to bite you.

5. The person who hired should do the firing. It has been shown that if the person who hired them fires them, the company is less apt to have a discrimination claim. The theory on this is that if the person willingly hired an employee that is a woman, why would they later develop a prejudice against her.

6. Think about your own motives. Examine whether there is any truth and you did show bias without even realizing. Do you hold certain workers to higher standards? Do you have certain views on women in the workplace, single or married women, older workers or handicapped workers or beliefs about different races? If so, then have a trusted manager review the reasons for the disciplinary action or for firing the employee.

[mattsaboy]

on 8/21/2009 5 stars and a Recommendation. Thanks for the tips.

[solidlady09]

on 8/2/2009 nice article 5 stars and a recommend

[starlet67]

on 7/9/2009 Smart tips for avoiding discrimination claims!5*

[magnadea]

on 5/29/2009 As an attorney who practiced in the employment law arena, I think this is a good basic primer on how to avoid discrimination claims. 5* and rec

[gahazeleyes]

on 5/17/2009 Very informative. Thanks