DB FPX 8410 Assessment 1

Executive Summary

This report was commissioned by top-level management, with the main aim of reviewing a number of employee grievances and evaluating the risk they pose to your business. To determine the risk environment better, a risk assessment was conducted. It is your duty under the law to investigate all workplace claims of discrimination, harassment, and lack of conformity with the law immediately. This involves claims of infringement on company policies. Credible information has been gathered, and every grievance is detailed in the analysis table annexed to this report.

What We Recommend

Prioritize the complaints with the highest risk and exposure to your business. This will be beneficial to your overall business strategy. Higher-risk complaints have the greatest impact and can have the greatest value loss, so it is logical to concentrate all attention and resources on those complaints first. To begin to cut down on future risks, the following steps are highly recommended:

Give training and conduct training for company employees, supervisors, managers, and human resources about Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) laws and company policy to achieve consistency in communications.

• Conduct employee appraisals and pay packages to ensure consistency and determine if there are any patterns of potential discrimination.
• Foster and support an open-communication culture so that mistakes can be detected early.
• Provide clear and reliable policies for retaliation and anti-harassment, assuring employees that their grievances are going to remain confidential and immediately investigated.

Our Methodology

Our proposals were created with reference to the following:

• Legislative legislation and law books printed by institutions such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and other government departments.
• Leveraging the evaluation of upcoming trends from the grievances we gathered.

What We Covered

Complaints were gathered in three locations: Illinois, Georgia, and Alabama. We have a total of 30 complaints that range from low to high as regards legal risk severity, with low being the least amount of legal exposure and high the most exposure. Once the complaints were inserted into the table, they were thoroughly examined in an effort to determine the seriousness of the issues and to establish the appropriate course of action needed to rectify them. Documentation and confidentiality are essential for proper management of human resources (Schrimsher & Fretwell, 2012). A brief summary of each complaint was entered in the table.

After reviewing the data, we determined that a considerable number of complaints were very likely in violation of some or even all of the aforementioned laws, including OSHA, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Equal Pay Act of 1963, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 2021).

DB FPX 8410 Assessment 1: Analyze a Set of Worker Complaints 

The analysis chart shows a variety of high-risk exposure claims. Notably, there are over five wrongful death claims, with four alleging that your company was negligent in providing a safe working environment. The claims indicate that the workers contracted COVID-19 and died. Additionally, there are four allegations, one of them from a whistleblowing employee who claims potential violations of current OSHA standards. As per the OSH Act, it is your responsibility to provide your employees with a safe and healthy work environment (United States Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration). These actions can lead to extreme legal liability for your company if you are found to be negligent (Gjelten, n.d.).

The case of Charles Jackson can also be high exposure to the law. Mr. Jackson, a physically disabled veteran data entry clerk, claims that he was fired from his position for his inability to get the job done perfectly. He was told he is not as efficient due to the workload stemming from the reduced workforce due to the COVID-19 pandemic and was given 30 days’ notice instead of the required notice of 60 days. Such a situation falls under Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Rehabilitation Act violations (Northern Illinois SHRM, 2020) as well as under potential Age Discrimination Act violations (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 2021).

DB FPX 8410 Assessment 1: Analyze a Set of Worker Complaints 

A case of high exposure would be Amare Kwame. Mr. Kwame, who is an engineer, states that only people of color (African American, Latino, etc.) were called back to the office, and the chief engineer informed him that he was “strictly forbidden to go into the office because we are told white lives matter.” If this is true, your company could be in noncompliance with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 2021).

The COVID-19 pandemic has put into sharp focus the riskiness and magnitude of rising threats to businesses. The new normal that this unprecedented natural disaster has brought will impact all businesses (Am et al., 2020). While COVID-19 caused variations in the work environment, it is not an excuse for negligence or disregarding the voice of employees. You must address these issues by countering threats in time and conducting serious investigations to resolve grievances quickly.

DB FPX 8410 Assessment 1: Analyze a Set of Worker Complaints 

U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration. (2021). Protecting workers: Guidance on mitigating and preventing the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace. https://www.osha.gov/coronavirus/safework

U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (2021). Age Discrimination. https://www.eeoc.gov/age-discrimination

U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (2021). Race/Color Discrimination. https://www.eeoc.gov/racecolor-discrimination

U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (2021). Workplace Laws Not Enforced by the EEOC. https://www.eeoc.gov/