Employment Discrimination Law

An employee is one whose work, working hours, equipment or tools are under the control of an employer. The work to be done and how it’s done by the employee are also controlled by the employer. IF the worker’s tasks and working hours are under his or her control, they are independent workers.  If a worker is given benefits he is an employee, but a particular contract may show that one is an independent contractor even though such an aspect alone does not demonstrate control (Twomey & Jennings, 2010).

The Title VII prohibits forbids employers from discriminating person due to their skin color, race or attributes relating to a certain race. It also forbids any employment practice used equally to all workers and whose effect will be adverse to specific racial group. The law covers all genders and pregnant women. It also covers issues of sexual harassment that a person may be subjected to (Bennett-Alexander, 2014). However, the law does not cover LGBT since sexual orientation discrimination is included.

Negligent hiring can be traced from the common law and results from tort section of laws.  The application of negligent hiring is normally done to place liability on an employer when, under respondeat superior theory, there lacks another recovery basis.  Any claim relating to negligent hiring is based on the notion that the liability arising from negligent acts of an employee is borne by the employer. In such a case, a court will assess the extent to which an employer was reasonably careful in selecting an employee to perform some specific tasks (Twomey & Jennings, 2010). Lack of background checks before employment such as drug testing may lead to such a liability.

Reference

Twomey, D. P., & Jennings, M. (2010). Business law: Principles for today's commercial environment. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.

Bennett-Alexander, D.(2014). Employment law for business . Chicago, IL: Irwin.