What determines coverage under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act?
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 covers any company with "15 or more employees for each working day in each of 20 or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year." Sounds simple.
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 covers any company with "15 or more employees for each working day in each of 20 or more calendar weeks in the current or preceding calendar year."
Sounds simple. But how to determine when the employment relationship is in effect and when it is not?
When, after several ignored gripes to Maintenance Foreman Klaus Hauptman about a scaffolding he considered unsafe, Painter Class II Harold Stark threatened to file a complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
Hauptman's response was brusque. "Do that and it'll cost you your job."
Stark did it and Hauptman was as good as his word.
Stark didn't plan to take it lying down. "You can't fire me," he protested. "I'm covered under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act."
"That's what you think."
After an exhaustive search of payroll records, time charts, work sheets, and other time-keeping records, Hauptman informed Stark that even though the company employed the requisite number of workers Stark was excluded because the employee count only qualified a person on days when he is actually paid. Days off and unpaid leave do not apply. On this basis, Stark was disqualified.
The painter disagreed and threatened to sue.
Question: What do you think? Is Stark covered under the Act?
Wainscott's decision: "Kill the termination notice," Plant Engineer Bill Wainscott instructed Hauptman after reviewing the details of the dispute. "Recent cases cite that the standard most currently in use by the U.S. Supreme Court requires use of the 'payroll method' of counting employees. Experience proves that attempting to base the count on time actually compensated is not only cum- bersome, expensive, and complex, but unreasonably time consuming."
Waiscott added, "On top of that, if this case were carried any further it would be embarrassing to the company. Your continued disregard of an employee's safety complaint could put not only the company in hot water with OSHA, but you as well."
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Annual Salary Survey
Before the calendar turned, 2016 already had the makings of a pivotal year for manufacturing, and for the world.
There were the big events for the year, including the United States as Partner Country at Hannover Messe in April and the 2016 International Manufacturing Technology Show in Chicago in September. There's also the matter of the U.S. presidential elections in November, which promise to shape policy in manufacturing for years to come.
But the year started with global economic turmoil, as a slowdown in Chinese manufacturing triggered a worldwide stock hiccup that sent values plummeting. The continued plunge in world oil prices has resulted in a slowdown in exploration and, by extension, the manufacture of exploration equipment.
Read more: 2015 Salary Survey
