MEMO
After a thorough research, it is evident that the constructive discharge of the employee is relevant as the company’s production schedule changed due to the increased production of the company (“How to Prevent Constructive Discharge,” 1999). The company did not consult the employees before it changed the production schedule. Initially the production employees worked Monday through Friday. Due to the company growth, the production schedule of the company had to be revised and a few changes made. At the beginning of the following year, the employees were supposed to work in shifts of 12 hours. Each employee was supposed to work for four days a week and take an off for the remaining days. The four days can occur any day of the week, Monday through Sunday. This propelled the employee to quit after the policy change took effect as the employee felt discriminated by the new working policy as it required the employees to work on a religious holy day.
Civil Rights Act of 1964
According to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VII prohibits employment discrimination based on religion (Turco, 1997). It requires employers and employees in organizations to have a good understanding of the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) (Turco, 1997). Unlawful employment practices state that it is unlawful to discriminate against any individual because of his race, colour, religion, sex or national origin. These are well stated under the:
- Employer practices
- Employment agency practices
- Labor organization practices
- Training programs
- Recommendations
The company should have in place a system where employees will launch their complains. Effective implementation of these systems, give the company a chance to sort issues before they magnify to the point of becoming law suits. It should also establish and follow the policies of the company on how to communicate with employees on issues such as performance and any disciplinary actions. It should never introduce changes on the set conditions of employment in order to get employees to resign as this will have a negative impact on the morale of supervisors.
The company should always follow its standard procedure for terminating workers (Gerencher, 1999). It may also request official resignation letters from employees who chose to quit on their own consent and have it filed or kept in records to use as evidence when needed. Exit interviews the management an opportunity to settle disputes and remove hard feelings on the part of the client.
The above recommendations are based on the fact the termination of an employee can have tragic effects on the employee. The job could be the only source of livelihood for the employee and so taking away from their job could mean putting their lives at a hault. For this reason, the termination of employees should be done in a gentle way, and the employee be given a compensation inform of advance retirement benefits or something related to that. This will help the employee to have a starting once their job is terminated.
References
Gerencher Kristen. (1999, 1 March). Tackling terminations (firing an employee) (Industry
Trend or Event). InfoWorld, 21: 9.
Turco Frank. (1997, 13 June). Laws Expected to Put Employee Suit to Rest. Phoenix
Business Journal.
How to Prevent Constructive Discharge. (1999, 8 November). San Diego Business Journal.
