Navigating Workplace Discrimination: Lessons from Griggs v. Duke Power Company

Abstract

Course Name and Number [Name] Date Introduction Discrimination is the act of treating or making unfair or prejudices distinctions between humans on grounds of certain categories to which such humans belongs or are perceived to belong. Such distinctive categories include but not limited to age, race, gender, sex and religion among others. However, it is imperative to note that discrimination can either be legal or illegal based on what the law says or does not say about the issue at hand. When law directly prohibits a certain act, then, in case of discrimination it automatically becomes illegal while if the law is silent on a certain issue, then such discrimination becomes legal. Griggs v. Duke Power Company (1971) case offer clear lime lights on what it takes for company policies to subject its workforce to an unintentional illegal discrimination. While Duke Power Company may not have had the intention to discriminate based on race, the Supreme Court noted that its employment practices had a disparate impact on African American employees that proved unlawful discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Identify the case Griggs v. Duke Power Company (1971) is a great case whose profound impact on employment discrimination law in the United States remains well defined. The case revolved around the concept of disparate impact discrimination serving as a strong pillar in addressing systemic and hidden discrimination at American workplaces. Duke Power Company served as an energy provider operating a power plant in North Carolina. In 1955, this great company adopted an employment policy requiring job applicants for any other position other than in the Labor Department to be high school Diploma holders with a pass on two aptitude tests. Although the new requirement seemed neutral, Willie Grigg unveiled the controversy within it citing that the demands had no direct relations with job performance. On the contrary, the requirements aimed at disproportionately excluding African American candidates from better-paying positions. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Griggs arguing that although the employer had no intentions to discriminate, the new requirements disproportionately affected the minority groups thus an illegal practice that demanded amendments of termination all together. Explain the specific discrimination According to Spiggle (2015), the legality or illegality of the discriminative approach depends on what the law says or does not say regarding the noted discrimination. In Griggs v. Duke Power Company (1971), the illegality of the company’s employment practices remains protected under Title VII of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 that protects minority groups from any form of intentional or unintentional disproportional treatment at workplace. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 offer protections on all employees and job applicants from employment discriminations based on color, religion, sex, national origin or race confirming the illegality of Duke Power Company employment requirements as they hindered the minorities a chance beyond the Labor department (Blumrosen, 1972; Harris and Pamukcu, 2020). The high school diploma requirement and amplitude tests excluded African Americans from better-paying positions which perpetuated an existing racial disparity within the company. As one may argue, education is relatively high in America and most of the minority groups fail...