In the contemporary world, discrimination in employment remains to be one of the most contentious issues that need to be addressed. Indeed, employment discrimination has reached historic highs, with many people complaining about discrimination that is meted on them in their places of employment. Discrimination at the positions of work takes place in different forms; it may be religious, gender-based, racial or even ethnic. Employers should be at the forefront in ensuring that they provide the right measures that will mitigate and arrest the situation and weed out discrimination at the workplace altogether. The other issue that has also raised concern in employment circles is whether independent contractors should adhere to the company dress policy. In the recent past, questions have also arisen about the differences between an employee and an independent contractor. An in-depth overview of the differences between an employee and an independent contractor as well as some of the employment discrimination laws that have been implemented are provided in this paper.
In this scenario, a company, Dream Massage, seems to have overstepped its boundaries by imposing a dress policy to someone that they hired as an independent contractor. The lady was employed as a massage therapist, but the firm does not want her to wear her hijab to work since it is against their dress policy. Indeed, it is very critical and essential for organisations to understand whether the service providers that they have hired are employees or independent contractors. Having a clear understanding of this fact will prevent any form of misunderstanding that may arise between an employee and the company relating to dress code and other parts of the job description (IRS, 2017) . A firm is required to withhold income taxes, withhold and pay Medicare taxes and social security as well as withhold and pay unemployment tax on the salary that is paid to an employee. On another hand, there is no payment or withholding of fees to people who are hired as independent contractors.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Common Laws
Some factors determine whether someone who provides his/her services to a company is a worker or a self-regulating free-lancer. The laws that offer an indication of the mark of independence and control mainly fall into three categories. The first one is behavioral. It examines whether the organization controls the manner in which the hired person performs his duties as whether the firm has the right to control what the person does. The second one involves the financial aspect. It looks at the whether the player controls the business aspects of the employee's job. Additionally, it looks at the manner in which the individual is paid, the person who provides the tools that he/she uses and whether the expenses are reimbursed (Reuters, 2017) . The third law pertains to the type of relationship that exists between the two people. It looks at whether there are employee benefits or written contracts. All organizations have to look keenly at these factors so that they can determine if a worker is an independent contractor or an employee. In this scenario, the lady who has been hired by Dream Massage qualifies as an independent contractor since she neither receives tax withholding nor employment benefits.
Employment Discrimination Laws
Some laws are against any form of discrimination that takes place in the workplace. Dream Massage discriminated against their massage therapist by preventing her from wearing her hijab when at work. Federal laws abound that criminalize discrimination in the workplace. The VII relating to the Civil Right Act that was formulated in 1964 prohibits discrimination based on national origin, sex, religion, color and race (Feig, 2014) . The law applies to educational institutions, local and state governments and private employees.
Religious Discrimination
Dream Massage discriminated against the massage therapist based on her religious customs that required her to wear a hijab. The law prohibits employers from discriminating persons in their workforce based on their religious traditions. The law requires employers to accommodate the religious beliefs and traditions of their workers reasonably. They are required to do so as long as the law does not have extreme consequences for the employers.
Religious discrimination involves treating someone in a manner that is unfavorable because of her religious principles. The law shields persons who subscribe to both old-style and organized religion such as Islam, Christianity, and Buddhism. Additionally, it also defends those who have held moral, ethical and spiritual views. Spiritual judgment can also be witnessed if someone is treated differently by being married to someone from a different religion. Title VII is against workplace segregation that is based on belief, including religious attire such as hijabs and grooming practices (SHRM, 2016) .
Reasonable Accommodation about Religious Discrimination
Employers are supposed to implement policies that will accommodate the religious beliefs and practices of their employees in a manner that will not compromise on their operations. In the case of Dream Massage, they will need to allow their therapist to wear her hijab to work since she is an independent contractor hence she should not be governed by the same policies that apply to employees. Dream Massage should, therefore, grant their therapist permission to wear her hijab since it will not in any way hamper the company’s operations.
In conclusion, it would be prudent that analysis is made concerning the reason why an organization would want to maintain a rigid dress policy. Firstly, they may do so because they want uniformity among the employees. Some of them would not want their employees to come to work with attire that may compromise the professional environment of the workplace and jeopardize operations. However, firms should engage with their workers positively so that they can agree on the most appropriate dress policy that employees will not have difficulty to comply with.
References
Feig, E. R. (2014). Employee vs. Independent Contractor: Differences You Need to Know. LegalZoom , 34-47.
IRS. (2017). Independent Contractor (Self-Employed) or Employee? IRS , 25-34.
Reuters, T. (2017). Being an Independent Contractor vs. Employee. Thomson Reuters , 78-86.
SHRM. (2016). Managing Employee Dress and Appearance. SHRM , 56-68.
