Employers have a right to hire, promote, transfer, evaluate, discipline, layoff and terminate. Employers do not have the right to discriminate, harass, retaliate, or terminate wrongfully. So how can you operate your business effectively while still complying with the law? How do you ensure that you are maintaining an environment which treats people fairly?

To begin, you need to understand the law and what you are required to do under the law. As an employer, you hear a lot about discrimination and discrimination lawsuits. So what is discrimination? In its simplest terms, it is treating a group of individuals differently. You cannot refuse to hire, promote, train, provide pay and benefits, or discharge simply because an individual belongs to certain group or protected classes. In other words, everyone must be treated the same.

So what are these protected classes? Frankly, nearly all employees fall into one of the categories protected under either federal or state law. Employers are forbidden from making employment related decisions based upon:

race

color

sex

national origin or ancestry

religion

veteran status

age (over 40)

race

sexual orientation

pregnancy

handicap or disability

So as an employer what kind of actions might get me into trouble? To begin, the law does not prevent an employer from conducting their normal business. There is no law which bars an employer from hiring, promoting, disciplining, transferring or even terminating any employee he or she chooses. What the law does do is to prevent employers from making these decisions in a discriminatory manner.

While there are no hard and fast rules, it is important to be aware of potential areas of discrimination in your employment related function. So let