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Technical Assistance for Caseworkers on Civil Rights Laws and Welfare Reform

IV. What Type of Conduct Is Prohibited in Employment Settings?

Employment discrimination laws protect workers and prospective workers from discrimination based on race, color, national origin, citizenship status, unfair documentary practices related to employment eligibility, religion, sex, age, or disability. These laws cover both individual employers and employment agencies, including welfare agencies and contractors that provide job placement services for welfare participants. The laws prohibit discrimination in all aspects of the employment process: hiring and discharge, compensation, assignments, and all other terms, conditions, and privileges of employment. These laws protect all workers who are in an employment relationship, or are being considered for employment — where the employer has the right to control the "means and manner" of the individual's work, whether or not the employer pays the individual's salary.

Examples:

• Individuals who refer welfare participants to an employer may not make assignments on the basis of race, color, national origin, citizenship status, religion, sex, age, or disability. Thus, for example, a job placement service for welfare participants may not assign African-Americans to janitorial and sanitation positions and whites with similar backgrounds to entry-level office positions.
• Employers and those referring welfare participants to employers may not retaliate against participants because they opposed practices that they reasonably believed were unlawful under the employment discrimination statutes or because they participated in proceedings under the employment discrimination statutes.
• Employers and those referring welfare participants to employers may not discriminate on the basis that a person looks "foreign" or has an accent.
• Employers and those referring welfare participants to employers may not make hiring or referral decisions on an assumption that participants over the age of 50 are too weak for manual labor.
• Employers and those referring welfare participants to employers may not refuse to hire or refer an individual because his or her immigration status is that of a permanent resident, asylee, or refugee.
• Employers must accommodate an employee's or welfare participant's religious practices unless doing so would create an undue hardship. For example, people must normally be permitted to wear religious attire unless doing so would create a safety hazard. Furthermore, a welfare agency may not refuse to refer an individual for employment because of his or her need for religious accommodation.
• A contractor that provides job training or referral services may not use a high school diploma requirement for participation in training programs, or use another requirement that excludes disproportionate numbers of minorities, unless such a requirement is job related and consistent with business necessity. Further, such a requirement may not be used if there is available to the contractor an alternative that would exclude fewer minorities and also serve the contractor's legitimate interest in efficient and satisfactory job performance.
• Employers may not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, citizenship status, sex, age, religion, or disability in the payment of wages. Also, employers must pay equal wages to women and men who perform substantially equal work, unless the pay discrepancy is based on a seniority system, a merit system, a system that measures quantity or quality of production, or on a factor other than sex.
• Employers may not place female welfare participants in office positions while male welfare participants are placed in manual labor positions based on assumptions of the individual's skills or strength.
• Employers may not harass a welfare program participant on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, national origin, age, or disability and must take immediate and appropriate corrective action if it becomes aware of such harassment. For instance, an employer may not threaten to fire a female welfare recipient for failure to grant the employer sexual favors.

Index: Technical Assistance for Caseworkers
1. What Federal Nondiscrimination Laws Apply to TANF Programs?
2. Who Is Covered by Federal Nondiscrimination Laws?
3. What Conduct Is Prohibited In Federally Funded Programs and Activities?
4. What Type of Conduct Is Prohibited in Employment Settings?
5. What Conduct on the Basis of Disability is Prohibited?
6. How Are The Nondiscrimination Laws Enforced?
7. Who May File A Complaint of Discrimination?

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Date of last revision: March 3, 2006

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