Managers have five basic responsibilities under the federal discrimination laws:
Don't Discriminate
Any decisions you make about other employees, such as hiring, firing, scheduling, or assigning work tasks, should not be made because of a person's race, skin color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, disability, or age (age 40 or older). You also may not harass an employee for any of these reasons.
Report Discrimination
You have a duty to bring any unfair treatment or harassment to your employer's attention. As a manager, you must act immediately to correct the situation.
Don't Punish Employees for Reporting Discrimination
Employees have a right to complain about treatment that they believe is illegal job discrimination. You cannot punish employees, treat them differently, or harass them because they report job discrimination or help someone else report job discrimination, even if it turns out that the conduct was not illegal.
Grant Requests for Workplace Changes
You may be asked to make changes to the workplace or to workplace rules because of a person's religious beliefs or medical condition. For example, a Jewish employee may ask to change her schedule to observe the Sabbath or a disabled employee may ask to use a stool to perform his job.
In general, the law expects you to carefully consider each request and whether it would be possible. However, it is not always easy to determine the answer to these questions, so you should always check with more senior managers about your company's policies.
Keep Employee Medical Information Private
The law requires that you keep an employee's medical information private, unless there is a need for a more senior manager to know about it. This means that you should not discuss any employee's medical information with other co-workers. The law also places strict limits on when you can ask an employee about his or her medical condition.