Scenario Analysis

This assignment will assess Competency 6: Examine age and disability discrimination within the workplace.

Analyze the five scenarios listed below using the law you have learned thus far.  Each analysis should be no less than 150 words in length and follow these guidelines:

Double-spaced 12-point Times font One inch margins APA format (Title page, Citations, Reference page) Correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation

Scenarios

Eugene Kilpatrick, who worked for Tyson Foods for 27 years, was terminated at age 68 and replaced by a much younger employee. His only evidence of age discrimination is an email from the manager stating that he understood how long Kilpatrick had worked for Tyson, but that Kilpatrick was not effectively doing his job. Is this enough to establish age discrimination? Tommy Morgan was a 20-year employee of New York Life Insurance Company. At age 52, his career at New York Life included a promotion, high marks for job performance, and a good reputation among his colleagues. One co-worker described Morgan as the best managing partner he had seen in 40 years. In September 2005, the company sent out an email announcing a “new generation of managers.” Within three weeks of that email, Morgan was fired. He sued New York Life for age discrimination. Does he have any basis for a legitimate claim? Why or why not?  Would the situation be different if the employer simply said that Morgan was no longer “compatible” with the company’s corporate culture? Greenberg is a telephone installation and maintenance employee who works for BellSouth.  He also is obese and suffers from other medical conditions.  Under BellSouth’s safe load limit policy, employees in certain jobs, such as Greenberg's, could weigh no more than the “safe load limit” of the equipment used in their work groups. Because Greenberg’s weight exceeded the safe load limit for his position, his supervisor “would hand-pick Mr. Greenberg’s job assignments to make sure he did not get any assignments that would require him to climb.”  However, when BellSouth hired an outside firm to track the weight of employees governed by the safe load policy in order to ensure uniform implementation, Greenberg’s supervisor informed him that he had to lose weight.  After failing to lose the weight, Greenberg was terminated.  Greenberg suffers from “diabetes, hypertension, hypothyroidism, and a variety of disorders that affect his endocrinology. Such physiological disorders cause him to be overweight and prohibit him from losing weight.”  What additional information would you need in order to determine whether Greenberg suffered from discrimination in his termination?  How can you determine whether he has sufficient facts on which to state a claim? The Department of Homeland Security rejected an employee’s application to transfer to a position as a detention enforcement officer on the ground that he had limited vision in one eye because of an earlier injury. His request for an eye re-examination was also rejected. The DHS also noted that detention enforcement officers were required to have a commercial driver’s license, which required better vision than the applicant demonstrated. Was the applicant disabled? Is the DHS guilty of disability discrimination? Were the vision rules job-related? A dispatcher suffered from multiple sclerosis, which, among other things, caused incontinence and coordination difficulties. After having bowel accidents at work, the dispatcher was subjected to ridicule, which included name-calling, the posting of unflattering drawings and pictures on the office walls, and the theft of his cane. Has the employer created a hostile work environment? To what extent is the employee required to notify his supervisor of his belief that the work environment is hostile?