Labor Relations Legislation and Supreme Court Rulings

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I Griggs vs. Duke Power

The Duke Power company , in its recruitment policy had the requirement of a high school diploma and an IQ test, for applying to its higher positions. Blacks, who were less likely to have a high school diploma and averaging lower scores on the IQ test, were selected at a much lower rate for these positions as compared to white candidates.

Evidence showed that employees who have not completed high school or taken the tests have continued to perfom satisfactorily and make progress in departments for which the high school and test criteria are now used.

The Supreme court ruled that under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, since the aptitude tests involved, and the high school diploma requirement, were broad based and not directly related to the jobs performed, Duke Power's said policy and procedure was found to be in violation of the Act .

The case involved employment discrimination . The supreme court ruled that the company's employment requirements discriminated against black employees.

The Act forbids by law , not only open discrimination, but also all practices that are fair in form but discriminatory in operation, as in this case , though the policy as such did not discriminate against blacks, the fact that fewer blacks had high school diplomas, was discrimination in operation against them.

Broad application of the case to business, HR Managers and Line Managers :

1. The Company is now forbidden in practicing policies that may seem to be fair,but are actually discriminatory in operation. Dispite it being intentional or unintentional, companies are still liable to be incriminated.

2. HR Managers must relook at their HR policies, to do with recruitment, transfers, promotions, etc and make sure that they are not discriminating against any minority group however unintentional it may be.

3. HR Managers must work with their line managers to see if the selection criteria for every job is appropriate to the performance requirement from the job .In other words, if the qualification or test criteria for a job are not really relevant to the job and inadvertently screens out certain ethnic groups or minorities, the business may be violating the Civil Rights Act.

II Supreme Court's ruling in the Bakke Case

In 1972, Allan Bakke , a 33 year old male engineer applied for admission to the medical school of the university of California at Davis and was not accepted. He applied two years in a row, and was rejected both times. It was found that minority applicants with grade point averages lower than Bakke were accepted under a special minority admission program, that set aside 16 of the 100 total places in the entering class for minority groups titled blacks, chicanos, Asians and American Indians.

In 1974 , Bakke ...