Question

Employment Law-In your own words, Marion Pham is a nurse of Vietnamese ancestry. The staff of the ward in which she has worked for many years at the Astral Hospital Center is very culturally diverse. Although no one has ever demonstrated overt hostility toward her because of her race or color, she has noticed that over the years, it is usually the Asian employees who are made the brunt of practical jokes or ridiculed. At one time or another, she has observed just about every employee on the ward, including other Asian staff members, as well as the head nurse, engage in such behavior. Each time this happens, Marion experiences a strong sense of hurt and ostracism. Otherwise, everyone on the ward is helpful and courteous to her and she is frequently asked to participate in off-work social activities with coworkers. Is this situation at Astral legally actionable, on the basis of racial harassment? 200 words or more, please

Answer 1

Lets first understand what is Racial Harassment?

Racial harassment means that someone is bothering you, threatening you or treating you unfairly because of your perceived:

• race
• colour
• ancestry
• place of origin
• ethnic origin
• creed
• citizenship.

It is against the law for anyone to harass you, insult you, or treat you unfairly for any of these reasons.

Racial harassment can happen when someone where you work, live or get a service:

• makes racial slurs or “jokes”
• makes fun of you or insults you because of your racial identity
• posts cartoons or pictures, in a workplace, school or housing space, that degrade persons of a particular racial group
• calls you names because of your race, colour, citizenship, place of origin, ancestry, ethnic background or creed.

Here Marion is just the case whereshe is getting humiliating treatment because of her Vietnamese ancestry background.

At first Marion should try to tell that person/colleagues to stop. She might feel that saying or doing something might put herself, her job or her housing at risk. If this is the case, she should go to someone else in authority. She can speak to human resources, tell her manager. She should do this as this will make her legal case stronger and she would have some evidence to put up in the court.

Now if all the above options are exhausted then Marion can approach for legal representation. Now this is notable that worldwide the Laws are different in case of racial harrashment. In U.S.A., The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is responsible for enforcing federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an employee because of the person's race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information. It is also illegal to discriminate against a person because the person complained about discrimination, filed a charge of discrimination, or participated in an employment discrimination investigation or lawsuit.

Laws Enforced by EEOC

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII)
This law makes it illegal to discriminate against someone on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, or sex. The law also makes it illegal to retaliate against a person because the person complained about discrimination, filed a charge of discrimination, or participated in an employment discrimination investigation or lawsuit. The law also requires that employers reasonably accommodate applicants' and employees' sincerely held religious practices, unless doing so would impose an undue hardship on the operation of the employer's business.

Thus Marion have legal rights which she should use, suffering the racial harrashment is not good for anyone.

Source:

https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/types/race_color.cfm

https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/statutes/titlevii.cfm