Employment Law- Case Study DUE TOMORROW 10/16/17

DUE TOMORROW 10/16/2017 AT 16:30!!! 

Please refer to “Case Study A – Discrimina V. Defense Plants” below under Case Notes. 

Problem 2. Lack of minority hiring, evidence of discrimination

There are no minority or foreign born employees at Discrimina, Inc, even though the local community consists of many newly arrived people of Mexican extraction. For years, the ads for new employees all contained the phrase, “must have solid ties to the community and top English communication skills.” For that reason, few Mexican people have ever applied for work at Discrimina.

Assignment:

1. Rewrite the ad, in a way that will attract, rather than repel, Mexican or other foreign born applications. 

2. Then prepare a memo to the executives at Discrimina, Inc. advising them of why they should use your version of the ad.

Case Notes:

1. A small corporation, Discrimina, Inc. is a small parts  machining shop owned by Hank Discrimina and his daughter, Eunice  Discrimina. Discrimina, Inc. makes high quality agricultural parts for  some of the agricultural implement manufacturers. 

2. Mr. Discrimina is thinking of retiring and has considered  selling out for about $1.2 million. His machine shop has only 15  employees and is appraised at only $600,000.00 including the steel  building, grounds, machines, parts, and going business value.

3. Defense Plants, Inc. has just offered to acquire the entire  company for $1 million, and Hank Discrimina is allowing them to check  out his company to see why they want to pay so much for a small machine  shop. The agreement at this point gives both parties full rights to back  out and allows Defense Plants executives to check out the place. 

4. Defense Plants, Inc. has large government contracts and also  does work for private individuals. They sell ammunition for military and  sporting uses.

5. Because of their large contracts with the government, Defense  Plants, Inc. has a group of people whose sole job is to comply with  government regulations. Defense Plants also has an excellent human  resources department that has developed a policy for nearly everything  likely to come up in the area of employment disputes. The company is  non-union. In contrast, Discrimina, Inc. is the alter ego of one man and  to a lesser extent, his daughter. The company does not comply with  employment laws. Up until recently, Discrimina was regulated mostly by  state law, but recent expansions have put them into federal jurisdiction  in a number of areas.

6. During the tour of his plant, Mr. Discrimina asks his visitors  from Defense   Plants what military purpose his small machine shop  could possibly have. Dave from Defense Plants politely declines to  answer the question. 

7. A uniformed Navy officer appears the next day and asks Mr.  Discrimina to sign a secrecy agreement. Mr. Discrimina recognizes the  officer’s voice from calls made from a small implement manufacturer in  another state. He puts two and two together and concludes that the whole  reason the  government and the other machine company are cooperating on  this whole deal is to obtain access to the one specific machined part  that has a military use. He also realizes that only one specific  employee is qualified to machine the specific part. In fact, the  employee, Jim Arbor, his best machinist, was the one who invented the  part. Jim had come to work for Discrimina because he had needed to stay  in the area for domestic reasons. One more important detail is that Jim  is dating Eunice Discrimina.

8. Mr. Discrimina is now considering selling the part directly to  the government instead of selling his business. But there are  employment law problems to solve before he can qualify as a government  contractor. 

9. One problem has to do with terminating employees. The  Discrimina, Inc. handbook says, “If you are a good employee and keep up  with your work, I won’t fire you. But, if I want to close the plant, I  can immediately fire everyone. I can also change this manual any time I  want.” 

10. During the past six months, without updating the manual, Mr.  Discrimina has fired three employees, all without logging any problems  into Discrimina’s employment records. When asked, Mr. Discrimina says  the three employees were harassing Rita Land, his bookkeeper, and he  does not tolerate that at his company. 

11. The men consider Rita part of management because she works  mostly in the office annex. Rita considers herself an ordinary employee,  even though she is frequently in on confidential business planning with  Hank Discrimina and his daughter, Eunice, the Vice President. 

12. If the company becomes a government contractor, Discrimina  would have to have a health plan and would have to raise wages. There is  no health plan now, due to increased costs resulting from the illnesses  of the oldest employee, Frank Oldburr.