When a federal government creates a body of law that is what we call federal law. Federal law is the body of law of the common central government. There are many federal laws of importance in the US federal government. Some of them include; the age discrimination in employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) and Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990(ADA) (Radin, 2009). The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) will be discussed in this discussion.
The Act is for protecting people who are forty and above years from age discrimination during employment. The employment Act forbids any act of discrimination in employments such as when it comes to trainings, layoffs, hiring and firing or any other job assignment (Radin, 2009). Everyone should be treated equally despite their age. This law has really helped the aged from being harassed on the basis of their age by being fired or demoted from the supervisors, coworkers or clients. This bill was passed to a law in 1967 after it was signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
The Act forbids discrimination in places of work to individuals in a defied age group, between 40-70 years. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act was amended for the first time in 1986 whereby the upper age cap was removed. In 1991 the Act was also amended by the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act to further protect the older workers from uninformed or involuntary waiver of age discrimination protection under Age Discrimination and Employment Act (Wegman, 2004).
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Judiciary interpretation of the Act has changed over time whereby the Supreme Court recently interpreted the Act in a better way whereby it brought higher standards for proving causation than facing complains in the federal civil rights statutes. The law had a great impact to the older people since they could get equal employment chances and treatments. This was possible because they were protected against offensive comments or physical abuse during work which would have brought about hostile working environment.
The Act also prevents them from being fired or demoted with no genuine reasons. The Act also makes it possible for the old people to enjoy benefits at work. This only happened in limited cases because many employers knew it was expensive to provide benefits to elder people compared to the young ones. This Law came in to remove the stereotype that older people are weak, close minded, and slow when it comes to adapting to the new technology, less productive, physically in active and susceptible to sicknesses (Miller, 2009).
The Act played a very important role to remedy these inaccurate stereotypes associated with older people. The major players in this law were the employees aged forty and above years and the employers. The employees were highly discriminated at work places during job assignments, promotions, job benefits, during hiring and firing and also layoffs (Neumark, 2009). The employers who had more than twenty employees who had worked for more than five months urged to comply with the Act irrespective of the number of people employed. The historical significance of the law was that it protected US employed by fellow US citizens and those employed abroad expect where instances of law violation in the other country would occur.
This law also makes the employer to bear the burden in case of a layoff or any action that hurts the old is not based on age but other reasonable factors. The Act allows for federal workers who may retaliate in case of reporting age discrimination to sue for damages got (Wegman, 2004). The media and public played a major role in creating awareness about age discrimination and employment act. The media could help the employees spread their grievances and also to reach their complaints to the right authorities. Media also helped educate the employers on the Act requirements. After passing this law in age discrimination at work and advancing it in support of discrimination law on age based employment, it could not go without opposition. This happened when many trade associations joined together against Act.
An example of trade association that was against this Law was the National Association of Manufacturers that would recommend for voluntary efforts by the old people to reduce joblessness (United States, 2001). Although media has been used as a platform to fight for the older people rights in employment, the media is also used negatively whereby employers use Facebook to advertise for jobs which attracts younger applicant thereby discriminating against older people which is a violation of the Employment Act. The old people, over the age of forty are denied the opportunity to view ads on employment adverts on Facebook thereby they cannot apply for the jobs.
Title VII of Civil Rights Act prompted the growth of Age Discrimination in Employment Act. Title VII main intention was to prevent all types of discrimination including color, sex, religion or national origin. The congress chose to exclude age in the above protected classes. The age Act was not pushed immediately after the congress enacted the Title VII until later when the congress requested the secretary of labor to give a report on age discrimination in employment. The data collected by the secretary showed that many older Americans were discriminated against in the employment sector. They were easily and rudely excluded from the workforce.
Statistics showed that applicants who were over fifty five years were excluded from about a half of all job openings in the private sector. Those about forty five years were barred from about a quarter of such jobs and those above sixty five years were excluded in almost all the jobs. These statistics motivated the congress to take an action. The data presented was worsening over time and old workers were losing jobs every day. This was seen between the year 1965 and 1966 whereby the number of unemployed older people or who were over forty five years rose from 30.2% to 34.3%. It was evident that when workers turn forty five years they could go through some employment crisis and it was hard for one to secure a new job after losing the one they were in due to age. This led the older people to lead a poor life later since they could not get any assistance or funding later after losing job.
This data that was reported before the congress showed that age discrimination at the place of work was due to lack of regulated state laws towards age discrimination (Neumark, 2009). ADEA has boosted employment of old people and brought reduction in their retirement. There has been more focus on termination than hiring as the enforcement of Age Discrimination in Employment reflects on the effects and challenges associated with claiming discrimination termination than hiring (Miller, 2009). Despite having this Act, there has been more age discrimination. This is evident due to the high claims filed on equal employment opportunity commission which shows that age discrimination is still continuing.
Age and discrimination in Employment Act has prevented loss of experienced workers in companies due to age, older workers are known to be more experienced in the jobs they do so losing them is losing an expert. The employment act increases a company productivity because people are not discriminated against thus they have a positive perception towards the company. Also the Act has reduced chances of losing workers due to old age. In conclusion, Age Discrimination in Employment Act has played a major role in protecting the older people from losing jobs because of their age. Although there is no evidence if the Act has led to increase of employment through more hiring or it has reduced employment of older workers considering the great cost of terminating the older people.
References
- Miller, E. (2009). Recent Developments Under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. The Labor Lawyer, 5(2), 223-237. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40862042
- Neumark, D. (2009). The Age Discrimination in Employment Act and the challenge of population aging. Research on Aging, 31(1), 41-68.
- Radin, B. A., & Chanin, J. M. (2009). Federal government reorganization: A policy and management perspective.
- Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett Publishers United States. (2006). Impact of the age discrimination in Employment act of 1967: Hearings before the Subcommittee on Retirement Income and Employment of the Select Committee on Aging, House of Representatives, Ninety-fourth Congress, second session. Washington: U.S. Govt. Print.
- Off. United States. (2001). Legislative history of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. Washington, D.C: G.P.O
- Wegman, D. H., McGee, J., National Research Council (U.S.)., & Institute of Medicine (U.S.). (2004). Health and safety needs of older workers. Washington, D.C: National Academies Press.
