The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued guidance on national origin discrimination, replacing the EEOC’s 2002 compliance manual on the subject. Two resources accompanied the guidance, including a set of questions and answers (accessible here) and a small business fact sheet (accessible here).
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination based on national origin. Title VII applies to employers with 15 or more full or part time employees. National origin discrimination means discrimination because an individual (or his or her ancestors) is from a certain place or shares the physical, cultural, or language characteristics of a national origin (ethnic) group.
Some important points of the new guidance include:
- An individual’s place of origin may be a country, a former country, or a place that is closely associated with an ethnic group but is not a country.
- A national origin group is a group of people who share a common language, culture, ancestry and/or social characteristics. It does not have to refer to citizenship or immigration status.
- Title VII prohibits discrimination because an individual is not American.
- National origin discrimination includes treating someone less favorably at work because he or she associates with someone of a particular national origin. It also includes discrimination based on incorrect information or conclusions about a person.
- An employer cannot discriminate in order to satisfy the preferences of clients, customers or employees.
- An employer cannot make job assignments based on national origin.
- Unlawful harassment is conduct that is severe enough to create a work environment that an individual perceives as hostile and a reasonable person would find intimidating, hostile or abusive based on national origin.
- Employers may have business reasons for making language- based employment decisions, but employers must make sure that these decisions do not violate Title VII.
- Title VII does not require accommodation of national origin traditions or practices. However, an employer would have to grant a request for religious accommodation if it would not impose an undue hardship.
Employers should consider national origin when formulating their anti-discrimination policies and actions.