The Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act (ELCRA) is the Michiganlaw that discrimination based on race, color, national origin, as well as other factors.

The Act, MCL 37.2202, states:

An employer must not refuse to hire or recruit, discharge or otherwise discriminate against any person with respect to employment, compensation, or a term, condition or privilege of employment because of ... Race, color, [or] national origin.

Federal Racial Discrimination Law - Title VII - Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects individuals against discrimination in employment based on race or color, as well as national origin, sex or religion. This law applies to employers with 15 or more employees, including federal, state and local authorities, employment offices, work and organizations.

An employer violated Title VII of discrimination against employees or applicants on the basis of each race or color in hiring, termination, promotion, compensation, training, or any other term, condition or privilege of employment.

No employment decision may be based on stereotypes or assumptions about the abilities, characteristics or the performance of members of a particular racial group. Title VII also prohibits intentional discrimination and neutral policy, not on the work that disproportionately exclude minorities.

Moreover, an employer may not deny equal opportunities, as a person, marriage, or in conjunction with a person of another race, because of membership or collaboration with, ethnic groups or organizations, or because of the visit or participation in schools or places of worship generally associated with a particular minority.

Racial characteristics and conditions

Federal law prohibits discrimination on the basis of a characteristic often associated with persons of a particular race, such as skin color, hair texture or facial features, even if not all members of this breed have the same characteristics.

In most cases, an employer may not discriminate because a condition that generally affects a race. Thus, most employers are not all people with sickle cell anemia (which affects mainly African-Americans), or prevent workers from the beards (this could be a greater hardship for African-American men who have a predisposition for pseudofolliculitis Barbae (severe shaving unevenness)). But this type of employment provisions admissible if and only if the employer can demonstrate that a different treatment of people with the condition is job-and essential for the operational business.

Harassment

Harassment on the basis of race, color or national origin violates Title VII arches Ethnic, racial "jokes", "insulting or negative comments, pictures or graffiti, or other verbal or physical conduct in the workplace on grounds of race or color, a unlawful harassment if the conduct creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment or interferes with an individual work performance.

Separation and classification of employees

An employer violated Title VII by physical separation or isolation of employees of a particular race or color from other employees or customers. In addition, employers are not entitled to workers by race or color. For example, Title VII prohibits assigning primarily African-Americans especially African-American establishments or geographic areas.

It is also illegal to members of a group of certain jobs, or group or classification of positions or employees, so that the members of the protected group are usually in specific occupations. The practice of re-coding or applications to an applicant's race or color, either through an employer or an employment agency, also is evidence of unlawful discrimination.

Pre-Employment Inquiries

Questions candidates for information that indicates race or color strongly suggests that an employer will be used as a basis for hiring. Therefore, when members of minority groups have been removed from the employment, the request for such pre-employment information could be evidence of discrimination.

It is possible that an employer legitimately wants information about the race or the color of the employee or applicant to the "affirmative action" are. In this case, the employer may have against the improper use of the information with "tear sheets" with the identification of an applicant's race. According to the applicant, the entire application, the employer should "tear sheet" and use the rest of the application in the recruitment process.

Retaliation

Finally, it is unlawful for someone to retaliate against an individual for opposing discriminatory employment practices, for filing a discrimination charge or for testimony, or participation in any way in a Title VII investigation or judicial proceedings.

Attorney Marya Sieminski joined the Law Firm of Sam Bernstein in 2003. She is admitted as a lawyer in Michigan state courts and in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. It earned her Bachelor of Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a doctorate magna cum laude from Wayne State University Law School. Marya has worked as a lawyer for the study 10 years and exclusively represented victims in personal injury litigation and workers' compensation claims. She was also the Governor to serve on the State of Michigan Workers Compensation Qualifications Advisory Committee.

The Law Offices of Samuel I. Bernstein, our Michigan personal injury law firm, has the cause of seriously injured Michigan victims for three generations.