BUSINESS LAW 101
The Civil Rights Act
KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was created to
eliminate discrimination based on race,
color; religion, sex and national origin. The law
applies to discriminatory treatment where the
employer treats some employees less favorably
because they belong to one of the enumerated
classes (called disparate treatment). It also protects
from discriminatory impact where a neutral
practice has the result of impacting one of the
protected groups (called disparate impact). Under
disparate treatment, the employer has a defense if he
did not intend to discriminate.
This defense is not available under the disparate
impact theory.
The Civil Rights Act is enforced by the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
(EEOC). The procedures for filing a charge are
not easy. Once a complaint has been made, it is
forwarded to an office of the EEOC. The employee
must then wait 60 days. During this time,
the EEOC investigates and tries to reach an
agreement between the parties.
If an agreement cannot be reached, the
EEOC gives the employee a “right to sue”
letter. Only then may a lawsuit be filed charging
discriminatory practices. But the lawsuit must
be filed within 90 days. Damages include
compensatory damages (including back pay)
and are not included in computation of gross
income for tax purposes.
Before employers start panicking and
employees start running to the courthouse,
you should know that the Civil Rights Act does
not apply to every business. To fall under the
requirements of the Civil Rights Act, a business
must affect interstate commerce and employ
15 or more individuals for at least 20 weeks
during the current or previous calendar year.
The question about the number of employees
is pretty easy to calculate-just count the number
of employees at any given time. If the maximum
exceeds 15 employees over a 20 week period,
then you must look to the next step.
When does a business affect interstate
commerce? Let’s say there is a local souvenir
business in Key West with 21 employees. All
of their souvenirs are made by local artisans,
sold within the store, and there is an absolute
policy against employing minorities.
What recourse would an African American or
Hispanic applicant have against such a business?
They would have to look to state law, because
the Civil Rights Act would not apply. However,
if a souvenir store next door shipped items to
patrons outside of Florida, or if they shipped
merchandise from artisans located outside of
Florida, or if they advertise their goods in publications
that go outside of Florida, they would be
subject to the Civil Rights Act. Two seemingly
identical businesses, covered by different sets of
laws.
The Civil Rights Act only applies to certain
classes of people-it is not all-inclusive. The law
only applies to discrimination based on race,
color; religion, sex and national origin. It does
not include age discrimination, handicap discrimination
or sexual orientation discrimination.
This does not mean there aren’t laws that
protect these categories; just not the Civil Rights
Act. We will be discussing these categories
in more detail in the next few columns.
[livemarket market_name="KONK Life LiveMarket" limit=3 category=“” show_signup=0 show_more=0]
No Comment