The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission - 1632 Words

Discrimination has quickly become one of the top causes of lawsuits facing businesses today. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency responsible for enforcing anti-discrimination law, reported that individuals filed 88,778 discrimination charges in 2014 alone- 35% of those claiming race discrimination and 29.3% claiming gender discrimination (â€Å"Charge Statistics†). Discrimination is defined as the â€Å"treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit† (â€Å"Discrimination†). With so many businesses being affected by these lawsuits, it is critical†¦show more content†¦Juarez was finally promoted in 2004, but only after complaining to the company’s human resources department. However, she became pregnant in 2005, and the issue immediately worsened (Davis). Wh en Juarez informed her district manager that she was pregnant, she retells, He said, I feel sorry for you. Congratulations. And he didn t say it in a positive tone, but a frustrated and upset tone† (â€Å"Judge Hears Challenge†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ). She claims that her assigned list of job duties immediately doubled after sharing her news, including redoing displays that she felt did not need to be redone. Although she met all of her monthly sales targets, she claims that this same district manager constantly berated her and suggested she step down because she couldn’t handle the responsibilities of the job while with child. He was constantly telling me, You can t handle it. You can t perform under your situation, said Juarez. (â€Å"Judge Hears Challenge†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ). According to her complaint, this type of harassment continued even after she gave birth to her son in 2006, and when she refused to quit she was demoted back to her former position as parts sales manage r. AutoZone claimed she was demoted for poor performance, needed improvement in many areas, and was not meeting expectations.