Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Essay Example for Free

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Essay Through the years, America has made an overall improvement in eliminating discrimination, inequality and slavery and focusing more on inclusion, equal rights, and equal opportunity. Despite a considerable improvement, there are corporations and individuals that often revert to archaic means of treating employees, creating hostile environments. Consequently, different advocacy groups and laws still remain in effect and continue to evolve to protect the citizens and non-citizens of the USA. Overview of the EEOC’s Function  One particular group that exists to protect the employee is the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The EEOC â€Å"is responsible for enforcing federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an employee because of the persons race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information. (Overview, para. 1)† The EEOC is committed to holding employers accountable for benefiting from the modern day enslavement of workers from other countries. Their job is to ensure that all workers foreign and those of the U. S. , are protected under the law and have the right to complain of such employment abuses which damage the foundation of our society. Compliance Issue and Lawsuit Background The article I chose involves a US company that trafficked over 200 Thai males to work for Global Horizons, Inc. , a Beverly Hills based farm labor contractor working alongside eight farms between 2003 and 2007. The individuals were falsely informed that they would have access to high paying jobs with temporary visas allowing them to live and work in the US. Once here, the individuals realized this was a lie and quickly experienced harassment, abuse, intimidation, and unequal pay. The employers threatened to deport them if they complained of the mistreatment. In addition, the employees were forced to live in housing infested with rats and insects (Carter, 2011). They were forced to sleep in tight quarters and some didn’t even have a bed. The Thai workers had all of their identification removed from their possession; the employees were left defenseless. Eventually, the Thai Community Development Center of Los Angeles brought victims to the EEOC to file charges of discrimination. The EEOC argued that Global Horizons engaged in a pattern or practice of national origin and race discrimination, harassment, and retaliation, which violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (EEOC, 2011). The EEOC sought back pay, compensatory and punitive damages on behalf of the victims, as well as injunctive relief intended to prevent further abuses at the companies and farms. This would uncover the cruel actions by Global Horizons and the farms for which they were employing these individuals. These farms, such as Del Monte Fresh Produce and Green Acre Farms, suffered reputation scrutiny and possible loss of profit after such discoveries. The EEOC’s Role The EEOC’s role in this lawsuit was to hold the employer accountable for benefiting from modern day enslavement so that companies could be aware of the ramifications of conducting such business. The EEOC first attempted to reach a pre-litigation settlement, and then filed the lawsuit in the U. S. District Court for the District of Hawaii. After no success, the EEOC quickly filed lawsuits in the U. S. District Court for the District of Hawaii and the U. S. District Court of the Eastern District of Washington. Social Impact This type of lawsuit promotes social change by making companies aware of the repercussions expected if such behavior is conducted in the United States towards citizens or non-citizens. Human trafficking is a modern day form of slavery and while it still continues to exist in modern business America, it is imperative that companies are made aware of the consequences they may subjected to should they choose to engage in such tactics. These types of lawsuits also promote healthy laws and advocate groups pushing for tougher laws so that employers cannot get away with such atrocities. It also makes employees aware of similar environments where they can quickly recognize if they find themselves in similar situations and who to go to for help. Businesses will do whatever it takes to make higher profits and quite often, they turn to illegal conduct thinking they may get away without consequence. Article Comparison In reviewing my article, I also compared it to an article from the internet published by CNN. Both articles seemed to have similarities by providing the same details and information as discussed in the EEOC article. After searching through several other articles, most included the same information as that provided by the EEOC. Management Perspective If I were a senior manager of Global Horizons, Inc. I would place tighter requirements upon hiring individual to conduct the contracting work. I would consider placing those individuals in the contracting positions in training classes to make them aware of what to do in the event they are faced with this type of situation. Because of the nature of the business involving labor work, I would enforce tighter regulations, initiate reviews, monitoring and would become more involved to avoid mistreatment of individuals. Managers and supervisors would be required to attend courses that stress inclusion, diversity, and harassment. All other employees would be required to attend the same courses, but these courses would also include information on how to report violations. Conclusion I believe that members of management from Global Horizons chose to keep quiet to reap the benefits of cheap labor. There is no excuse to have such behavior in today’s society after all the issues we have all faced as a country. Some improvement has been achieved but it is evident that there is more to be accomplished. Thanks to groups such as the EEOC, citizens and non-citizens can rest assured that there is protection available in the event of mistreatment.

Savage or Peaceful Essay -- American History, Native Americans

During the 1800's the Native Americans kept the peace while the Americans were self-serving in their pursuit of land. The Americans believe in the Manifest Destiny. The Native Americans did all that they could to remain in peace with the Americans. The Americans fought persistently with the Native Americans to gain Native American lands. The Americans wanted to move the Native Americans of what they thought was land given to them by God. The Americans believed they had the power to control all of the U.S., because they were given the right to by God. They also believed that the Native Americans knew about the Manifest Destiny, and that they should move off of the 'American' lands. The Americans thought that the Native Americans leaving their lands was, â€Å"a touching sight,†(Brown 31), that the Native Americans had realized that leaving their pasts behind was their destiny. The Americans believed that Native Americans felt obligated to move off of the land because of the Manifest Destiny. They believed that the Native Americans were happy to leave. The Americans also thought that by moving the Native Americans to reservations that they were helping the Native Americans. The reservations, the Americans thought would â€Å"free them from the power of the states,†(Jackson 133) and force the Native Americans to move to leave their 'savage' ways behind. They thought that by forcing the Native Americans to assimilate to the Americans that they Native Americans would be â€Å"a happy and prosperous people,†(Jackson133) instead of the savages the Americans believed them to be. The Americans believed that because the Native Americans had realized that it was there destiny to give up their lands that the Native Americans were going to ... ...,†(Jackson 134) so that all of the lands could be theirs. The Americans were only concerned with taking all of the land from the natives so that they could expand the United States and keep all minerals with in the new lands. In the 1800's the Native Americans kept the peace while the Americans were selfish in their crusade for land. The Americans thought that according to the Manifest destiny they were the sole rulers of the Native American's lands. Although the Americans wanted their lands, the Native Americans wanted to remain in peace with the Americans. The Americans continuously fought with Bernier4 the Native Americans even when the Native Americans had done no harm. The Americans were uncaring in gaining Native American lands. The Americans were the savages in their pursuit of the Native American's land.

Historical linguistics Essay

Linguistics is the scientific study of human language.[1][2][3][4][5] Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context. The earliest known activities in descriptive linguistics have been attributed toPÄ Ã¡ ¹â€¡ini around 500 BCE, with his analysis of Sanskrit in Ashtadhyayi.[6] One subfield of linguistics is the study of language structure, or grammar. This focuses on the system of rules followed by the users of a language. It includes the study of morphology (the formation and composition of words), syntax (the formation and composition of phrases and sentences from these words), and phonology (sound systems). Phonetics is a related branch of linguistics concerned with the actual properties of speech sounds and nonspeech sounds, and how they are produced and perceived. The study of language meaning is concerned with how languages employ logical structures and real-world references to convey, process, and assign meaning, as well as to manage and resolve ambiguity. This category includes the study of semantics (how meaning is inferred from words and concepts) and pragmatics (how meaning is inferred from context). Linguistics also looks at the broader context in which language is influenced by social, cultural, historical and political factors. This includes the study of evolutionary linguistics, which investigates into questions related to the origins and growth of languages; historical linguistics, which explores language change; sociolinguistics, which looks at the relation between linguistic variation and social structures;psycholinguistics, which explores the representation and function of language in the mind; neurolinguistics, which looks at language processing in the brain; language acquisition, on how children or adults acquire language; and discourse analysis, which involves the structure of texts and conversations. Although linguistics is the scientific study of language, a number of other intellectual disciplines are relevant to language and intersect with it.Semiotics, for example, is the general study of signs and symbols both within language and without. Literary theorists study the use of language in literature. Linguistics additionally draws on and informs work from such diverse fields as acoustics, anthropology, biology,computer science, human anatomy, informatics, neuroscience, philosophy, psychology, sociology, and speech-language pathology. Prev Page

Essay on Book Review Masters of Small Worlds by Stephanie...

Masters of Small Worlds by Stephanie McCurry The book Masters of Small Worlds by Stephanie McCurry concentrates on one very specific time and place in history. The time is pre-Civil War and the place is the Low Country in southern South Carolina. This area is particularly interesting because of the interaction between the planters and the yeomen in the area. The author explores the similarities and differences between these two distinct social classes. The author also brings gender relations into the equation. Her overall idea, as the title implies, is that the men of this era and this part of the country demanded control of each and every aspect of life. For every institution, there is a set hierarchy. This book is very well†¦show more content†¦The gender and class relations would suffer just as they did in the planters households. The yeoman settlements closely bordered those of the planters. These close proximities allowed for the interaction of these two very different social classes. The yeomen, in gene ral, yearned to be a part of the planters class. It was this undying hope that helped to pit this otherwise completely different class of people, with the wealthy plantation owners of the area. One of the many aspects of society that set these two classes apart was the ownership of slaves. This also set the scene for the influx of racial inequalities. The blacks in the area were overwhelmingly landless slaves. Even the yeomen, who greatly outnumbered the elite planters, suffered from inequalities. The ideas McCurry presents also have a great deal to do with gender relations in this time. The overall theme is always that of the master. White males in this place and time seem to possess an incredible superiority complex. This is one of the traits that links the yeomen farmer with the plantation owners. The planters handle their wives and children as if they were their property. This is in much the same fashion that they treat their slaves. Slavery, by the way, was perfectly acceptable and very common. These people would insist that slavery is alright because the Bible backs