Discrimination in the Workplace of Individuals Living with a Disease or Illness

Discrimination in the Workplace of Individuals Living with

A Disease or Illness

A Case Study

Bailey House

This research paper is a case study focusing on the discrimination of workers living with a disease or illness. I chose this topic based on the need to educate others on the signs of workplace discrimination. Job discrimination in the workplace can effect many people in many different situations. This particular study chooses to focus on those individuals living with a terminal illness.

Discrimination in the workplace can occur more frequently than many expect in this advanced society. The history of job discrimination in general is vast and covers many different areas. In America, the history of discrimination in the area of employment options is a sobering one that reaches far beneath the surface of what many want to know about our seemingly "fair" society.

Broad prejudices against people with illnesses survive at the threshold of the new millennium. Those prejudices, infecting those familiar and unfamiliar with the severity of functional illnesses determine the way "non-ill" people view and act toward people living and working with illnesses. Many people, however, still fail to recognize the pervasive and damaging nature of "affliction" prejudice.

Deep-seated psychological and sociological mechanisms give rise to prejudice against people with illnesses. While some or all of these mechanisms also contribute to discrimination against other minority groups, their operation in the context of illness has unique characteristics that make affliction prejudice extremely difficult to identify and eradicate.

Workplace screening for predisposition to illness was championed during the 1930's, as it became clear that some workers exposed to toxins on the job became ill while others did not. Such screening is an increasingly frequent though highly controversial practice in industry today. Screening prior to employment can help individuals avoid jobs that could be hazardous to their health. But testing workers for genetic susceptibility after they become ill could be a way for employers to avoid responsibility for workers' safety and compensation claims, shifting the blame to "genetically predisposed" workers while ignoring workplace hazards.

Bailey House is an organization that was started by West Village area business people, activists and clergy members as a resource center for those living with HIV/AIDS. The initial mission of the organization was to provide housing for those living with the disease in an effort to curb the rate of homelessness among those infected. The extended mission of Bailey House was further carved out after much advancement in medicine had been made to help combat the negatives of the HIV/AIDS disease. The focus shifted to help clients live rather than how to help them prepare to die.

After this organization was well established, another tenet of providing for those affected by this disease surfaced, that being job placement. As a result, Bailey House branched out beyond just providing housing for those living with HIV/AIDS. A service heavily relied on by the clients of Bailey House is their job training program which teaches clients interview skills as well as job skills necessary to succeed in the workforce. Along with this training, clients learn life skills, self-sufficiency and skills that complement their desire to want to appear as normal as possible while trying to obtain employment.

INVEST NYC is the name of the program geared towards restructuring the lives of those wanting to remain in the workforce while living with a terminal illness. This program offers a wide reach of literacy services, job readiness training, pre-vocational services and job placement assistance. This particular program has become a model nationally for other programs mirrored around the premise of what Bailey House represents. The success rate of this program is phenomenal with statistics of over 150 placements throughout the New York City area.

Those effected by workplace discrimination can range from many angles depending on the research shown. In this particular study, we are setting out to find out how people working with illnesses are identified and thusly discriminated against. Although few employers today likely would articulate a view that members of certain racial or ethnic minorities are not intelligent enough to hold some jobs, many freely express the view that people with illnesses or disabilities display inordinate absenteeism, even though this stereotype has been thoroughly refuted by empirical data. In contrast to race and ethnicity, which are generally recognized to bear no relation to an individual's abilities, the mere fact of having a disability or illness is still believed to convey important information about a person's potential and limitations beyond the particular disability itself.

Key identifiers that contribute to the perception of discrimination start with stereotyping based on images that we've been exposed to by the media followed by a stigmatism for what is perceived as negative because it is foreign. There is also a psychological discomfort that causes the imagination to create falsehoods that lead to a very formulated opinion about something or someone. We are also often presented with a "pity" factor, whereas people may not understand, they assume the worst about something they know little or nothing about.

According to the U.S. Constitution, the fourteenth amendment dissolves any disparity regarding the fairness of all individuals in a working environment. The amendment says: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the Sate wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

This amendment has the power to convey a message that a universal theme is shared by all United States citizens to strive towards a common goal without creating a disruption in the carrying out of daily practices that might hinder another human being unfairly.

In order for discrimination to be valid and acted upon, it must first be identified. Since this is such a serious claim, anyone claiming that they've been discriminated against, they have to provide proof of