- Unfair treatment because of race, color, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age (40+), disability or genetic information.
- Harassment by managers, co-workers, or others in the workplace due to race, color, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age (40+), disability or genetic information.
- Denial of workplace accommodation that the employee needs because of religious beliefs or disability.
- Retaliation because employees complained about job discrimination, or assisted with a job discrimination lawsuit or investigation.
Unfair Business Practices at Amazon.com
An Employment Law Case Study
Recently, the New York Times published an article called Inside Amazon: Wrestling Big Ideas in a Bruising Workplace, which thoroughly established anecdotes and claims by previous or anonymous employers who support the paper's assertions that “the company is conducting an experiment in how far it can push white-collar workers to get them to achieve its ever-expanding ambitions.” To save face, the CEO and President, Jeff Bezos came out with a statement saying that Amazon would not tolerate the “shockingly callous management practices” that have been brought to life by the writers of the New York Times. Although his intent may be to reconcile the claims made in the article, the amount of support in the lengthy critique helps to sustain the claim that the technology powerhouse has unreasonable expectations of employees as well as unfair business practices. Employment law tries to discourage unfair business practices by setting up a federal system with labor laws that determine appropriate practices and employee rights for the American worker.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission enforces these federal labor laws by prohibiting discrimination. These laws protract employees and job applicant against employment discrimination when it involves: