Diversity into an organisation - HR Management Assessment Answers

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Assignment Task

Trade unions and women’s groups simultaneously promote family-friendly policies and equality in the workplace. Yet family-friendly policies discriminate against workers without dependents. Do you agree or disagree. Why?

Understanding the fact that no two individuals are the same but still giving everyone an equal right to be treated with dignity and respect is what is meant by equity. Despite of various policies to ensure equity at workplace, some discrimination can still be observed. Marital status discrimination is one such example. Marital status discrimination refers to the state when some person is granted or denied certain rights based on his/her marital status. It may not be restricted to a specific gender however it may impact a specific population more than others. Several cases have been reported where employees have challenged the polices which favor married employees. Russ v. City of Troy (2001) case talks about a denied promotion because of unmarried status. Then Wojan, a single mother sued her employers as they for firing her giving a reason of poor performance (Wojan v. Alcon Laboratories (2008)) (Mary Curlew, 2009). Analysis of various reports suggests that employees are generally treated differently based on their marital status. It has been observed that married men are paid more and are offered more promotions in comparison to unmarried men. Employers are able to subsidize health benefits for their spouses and no additional compensation is offered to single employees (DePaulo & Morris, 2006). Work-family policies are often written to support people with children. For example, dependent care allowances and parental leave can only be availed by the employees with children. These facilities are not available to single mothers with low-income. Flexibility in work schedules are also offered to married workers with children easily. Single employees are generally taken for granted to take up travel more for work. They are also expected to work for more hours compared to working parents (Mary Curlew, 2009; Siebert & Sloane, 1981). All this discrimination directly affects the performance of people at work and hence requires considerable attention and reformed policies.