Employment Law Entry-Race & Gender
Today's article was about the class action law suit being brought against Federal Express. Maybe I'm confusing it with UPS, but I thought that FedEx had a company policy that discussing your salary with your coworkers was grounds for termination. I wonder if that policy has purely innocent motives. The only work environments I've had exposure to were roughly five years doing data entry in my mother's home business and almost two years bagging groceries at Winn-Dixie. Comparing how much above minimum wage we were making was not a cause of bad feelings amongst the bag boys.
When people start trying to climb the corporate latter, I can see how such a policy would prevent angry feelings. More obviously, though, the policy is very accomodating to discrimination. If your're not allowed to discuss how much money you make with your coworker, you can't find out that all the racial minorities and women always make less than the white guys.
The presenter mentioned that the women consistently make less than their married counterparts. Wait...that's not right. I forget exactly what he said but I understood him to say that some coworkers at FedEX are married to each other, and the woman always makes less. The policy wouldn't prevent those from discovering the problem. Also, the discrimination would be evidenced by who was and wasn't consistently promoted, which is also an issue in the case.
Another issue that doesn't sit well with me was that women and minorities were consistently given poorer reviews. In one of my earlier entries, I talked about the paper trail and it can seal your fate with regards to a discrimination lawsuit. How does the court deal with it when the reviews themselves look discriminatory? I recall the 80% rule. FedEx better be able prove that all of the reviews are accurate and unbiased.
When people start trying to climb the corporate latter, I can see how such a policy would prevent angry feelings. More obviously, though, the policy is very accomodating to discrimination. If your're not allowed to discuss how much money you make with your coworker, you can't find out that all the racial minorities and women always make less than the white guys.
The presenter mentioned that the women consistently make less than their married counterparts. Wait...that's not right. I forget exactly what he said but I understood him to say that some coworkers at FedEX are married to each other, and the woman always makes less. The policy wouldn't prevent those from discovering the problem. Also, the discrimination would be evidenced by who was and wasn't consistently promoted, which is also an issue in the case.
Another issue that doesn't sit well with me was that women and minorities were consistently given poorer reviews. In one of my earlier entries, I talked about the paper trail and it can seal your fate with regards to a discrimination lawsuit. How does the court deal with it when the reviews themselves look discriminatory? I recall the 80% rule. FedEx better be able prove that all of the reviews are accurate and unbiased.