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Worker's Civil Rights
Issue
Workers in this country may feel that their civil rights may have been violated from certain personnel who may have abused their authority at times. The following proposals may resolve some of the more common abuses conducted by management in the workplace.
Layoffs (Require Financial Proof)
It is fairly common for companies to lay off employees when the economy experiences a slow down or recession. This practice is often carried out even when businesses are not experiencing financial problems and layoffs are used as an excuse to reduce the work force in order to increase profits. During the Great Recession of America (2007-2009), companies laid off millions of workers even though many of the companies weren't in financial trouble at the time.
For example, Microsoft laid off approximately 5,000 workers during that time, but had over $20 billion in cash. Other companies followed suit and laid off their personnel in droves which, in turn, exacerbated an economic slowdown into becoming a great recession for the country. In the end, many executives got away with violating their workers' civil rights by laying off their employees without financial justification.
To prevent something like this from happening again, new legislation should be considered that requires companies to prove their financial hardship with the Department of Labor prior to laying off their employees. If this policy was in effect during that time, it would have prevented the snowball effect of conducting mass layoffs which would have prevented the deep recession.
Layoffs (Guarantee Job)
Another practice that businesses may have done in the past is to layoff their more experienced workers in favor of hiring lower cost workers. Most of the time, this is done at the expense of older workers which is discriminatory and a violation of a worker's civil rights. To prevent this problem, a new bill should be considered that makes it mandatory for companies to rehire employees that they laid off before they may hire a replacement. That way, a worker who is laid off knows that they are guaranteed their job back once the economy recovers, which will improve consumer sentiment as well during such times.
Layoffs (CEO)
To further prevent the possibility of unnecessary layoffs from occurring, perhaps, new legislation should be considered that will require the CEO to be laid off along with their employees. Such a policy would help ensure that the executive management staff did everything that they could in order to prevent the layoffs from happening with their company.
Unpaid Work
Unpaid overtime work for salaried employees may be considered to be a violation of a worker's civil rights. America is not a slavery state, so federal law may be needed to require employers to pay for all work performed by their employees, whether they are salary- or hourly-based.
Non-Compete
Many companies require new employees to sign a non-compete agreement, or they won't be offered the job. However, non-compete clauses limits one's availability to work elsewhere, which results in violating a worker's civil rights. America is known to be the "land of the free", but its policies in allowing managers to abuse their authority in this matter is contrary to this ideal.
Employers may say that non-compete clauses are necessary to retain qualified workers, but that effort should be accomplished by offering incentives to their employees such as higher pay or other benefits. New legislation should be considered that makes all non-compete agreements null and void in value and, by doing so, reinstates a citizen's right to work freely in this country.
Vacation
Vacation time for workers in America is less than other industrialized nations, which some view as a violation of a worker's civil rights to a certain degree. Additional time off is proven to improve productivity and workplace satisfaction, so this country should consider having a federal mandate that requires companies to offer new employees a minimal standard of four weeks of vacation (in addition to holiday and sick time).
Outsourcing
A major concern of violating a worker's civil rights is outsourcing jobs to foreign countries. This practice not only harms individual workers by limiting their prospects but damages the nation's economy as well.
Solving the outsourcing problem should be fairly simple: companies who wish to do business in the country should be required to build their product within the given nation. For example, if the Ford auto company closed its factory in America and moved its jobs to Mexico, then any automotive part manufactured in Mexico may only be sold and used in Mexico. If Ford wanted to use the same part in America then that part (and all other parts for the vehicle) must be manufactured and assembled in America. That way, companies may expand their products into other countries but not do so at the expense of costing Americans their jobs.
Same goes for services. If a company wishes to outsource their call center to a foreign country, then only calls that originate within that nation may be accepted for processing at that particular call center, and no other. That way, no jobs will be lost through outsourcing while still allowing businesses the opportunity to expand their services into foreign markets if desired.
Stock Options
Executives typically receive stock options as part of their salary however granting automatic stock ownership in this manner is unfair to the other stockholders who have to pay the full price. Some may argue that the top 1% of the population have too much power and influence in society, with such billionaires being the result of receiving stock options.
The solution is to simply establish a federal mandate that stock options may no longer be used as payment for one's employment. That way, if anyone wishes to become a stockholder, they may do so at the same cost as everyone else by purchasing the stock rather than it being freely given.
By implementing this idea, the 1% ultra-rich problem of having too much power and influence may no longer be a concern for the country.
Automated Interview
Despite certain laws to protect against job discrimination, many people have been discriminated against during the interview process without their knowledge.
Examples of "hidden discrimination" that are not protected under federal law are an applicant's general appearance (height/weight/hair style), length of time being unemployed, personal preferences (sports/hobby knowledge not relevant to the job), and other such matters. For the long-term unemployed, the situation has gotten to the point where employers are bold enough to actually advertise in their job listing that applicants must be "gainfully employed" and currently working at the time of their application. This is clearly discrimination.
The easiest way to solve all of these discriminatory issues is to automate the interview process where the interviewer doesn't have direct contact with the applicant. The questions that would be conducted during the interview should be posted with the job listing or application process. By doing so, employers may evaluate candidates to the same degree as before (by asking the same questions), but without the possibility of discriminating against them since the correspondence is entirely online or through the mail.
For handling the situation of the long-term unemployed, human resources should also be required to hide the applicant's employment dates to the hiring manager. That way, only the duration of the previous employment would be known (e.g., two years at a particular job), and not the actual date range of where the interviewer may determine that the applicant is not currently working at the time.
To ensure compliancy by employers, the automated interview system will be conducted by the Department of Labor as a requirement for all employment in the country. It will be a free but mandatory service for all businesses. All job postings in the country will be listed through the Labor Dept.'s website, and all job applicants will apply online as well. To those who don't have access to the internet, such access may be provided by local city halls, public libraries, or at the employer's own location. As a last resort, a paper version of the job application will be offered by the Labor Department through postal mail.
Discrimination of all forms will be avoided by this new system by sending the employer discrete information (such as this is candidate #1's answers, etc.). No names, ethnicity, or creed will be provided during the evaluation process. Additional testing that the employer may wish to verify the applicant's knowledge and skillset may be included in the process as well. All background checks will be conducted by the automated system whenever the employer assigns to move forward with a particular applicant. In this manner, the entire interview process becomes fully automated and prevents all forms of discrimination from occurring, whether such is protected by law.
However, there are other advantages of having an automated interview process than to just prevent discrimination. For example, the nation will have a more accurate number of the unemployed since all businesses will be required to submit such information whenever an employee is hired or if there is a loss of employment. The former employee will also have the ability to enter their information if their past employment is ever contested. Having accurate unemployment numbers is also relevant for determining various budget concerns, such as if the economy needs a stimulus package for recovery after an economic downturn.
Overall, by having an automated interview system with the Labor Department, practically all forms of discrimination will be eliminated during the job hiring process.
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