Human Resource Law

Module 01/M01 KeyTerms.html

Key Words and Concepts

• Regulations:  The principal, rule, or law created by administrative agencies, that are put in place after an elaborate set of requirements for public comments and review has been followed

• Common law:  Claims under which employers are liable in tort for wrongful discharge when they terminate employees for taking actions that public policy requires or commands.

• Tort:  the civil wrongs that harm people.

• Employment at will:  The doctrine which holds that in the absence of the contract promising employment for specified duration, the employment relationship can be severed at any time and for any reason not specifically prohibited by law.

• Equitable tolling:  The doctrine stating that if employees are unaware of their rights because they are actively misled by their employer or the employer failed to meet its legal obligation to post information in the workplace, a court might excuse and untimely filing.

• Plaintiff:  The employee filing a lawsuit.

• Burden of proof:  The plaintiffs obligation to show, generally by "preponderance (the majority) of the evidence," that his rights were violated.

• Punitive damages:  A remedy available in employment cases intended to punish the employer in cases of serious, intentional violations and to create an example to affect the behavior of others.

• Right of control:  The hiring party has the authority to control where, when, and how the work gets done, even if that party chooses not to fully exercise its authority or to delegate certain decisions to the person doing the work.

• Discrimination:  The limitation or denial of employment opportunity based on or related to the protected class characteristic of the person.

• Adverse impact:  The disproportionate limitation or denial of employment opportunity for some protected class group that results from the use of a "neutral" requirement or practice that cannot be adequately justified.

• Protected class:  The characteristics of people, such as a race, sex, and age, which are considered impermissible grounds for making employment decisions.

• Disparate treatment:  The unequal treatment based on one or more protected class characteristics that results in the limitation or denial of employment opportunity.

• Discriminatory intent:  The key element in which decision-maker based a decision, in whole or part, on a protected class characteristic of the affected employee.

• Discriminatory Effects:  The focus in adverse impact cases where plaintiffs must show, usually through statistics, that some employment requirement or practice affects one protected class group more detrimentally than others.

• Retaliation:  One major type of discrimination that occurs when an employee who asserts his or her rights under the law is subjected to a materially adverse action for doing so.

• Pretext:  The underlying premise that employment decisions are made either for discriminatory or lawful reason. Harassment: A form of disparate treatment where the victim of harassment is subjected to inferior working conditions because of her sex, race, or other protected class characteristic.

• Prima facie case:  A showing by the plaintiff that discrimination is a plausible explanation for an adverse employment action.