Show What You Know: Criminal Law and Business in the Global Legal Environment

INSTRUCTIONS AND INFORMATIONTo successfully complete the assignment, read the assigned materials and submit your answers. Please review the rubric for grading criteria and see the model answer below for an example of a full credit answer.

PART I: REVIEW
Use the textbook to answer all questions. Answers must be complete, logical, thoughtful, supported by examples, and well written.

By answering questions 1 & 2, you will make progress towards achieving unit learning goal one. Questions 3 & 4 will help you achieve unit learning goal 3.

Why is crime relevant to business? Give at least three specific examples.
What strategies exist for businesses to minimize exposure to criminal liability or to loss associated with criminal activities?
Why is the global legal environment important to all businesses?
What legal considerations exist with respect to trade regulations, international contract formation, employment and human rights issues, and prohibited activities in the international environment? Give at least three specific examples.
PART II: CRITICAL THINKING
Complete the learning activity below. Answers must be complete, logical, thoughtful, supported by examples, and well written. Answering this question will help you achieve unit learning goal 4.

Watch WalMart Comes to Teotihuacán: A New York Times Investigation (????????)
Read The Bribery Aisle: How WalMart Got Its Way in Mexico (????????)
View Walmart and the Pyramids (????????)
Using Walmart as an example, discuss the following: (1) Did Walmart act illegally? (2) Did Walmart act immorally? (3) Identify all the parties who have responsibility for identifying, preventing, and punishing illegal acts taken by corporations doing business internationally.
Your answer should be at least 350 words.

PART III: MODEL ANSWER
The following is an answer submitted by a student for full credit on a similar assignment to the critical thinking questions above.

1. Briefly summarize Lilly Ledbetter’s experience with workplace discrimination.

In 1979, Lilly Ledbetter began working at the Goodyear tire plant in Gadsden, Alabama. She found out, after working for the company for 20 years, that she had been receiving less pay than men. Being a supervisor, she was paid much less than other male counterparts, and even some of those who ranked below her.

2. Why is this story relevant to a course on business law?

The story is relevant to a course on business law because it is against the law for businesses to discriminate against employees on the basis of their sex. Such prohibition is outlined under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Specifically, Title VII prohibits employers with more than fifteen employees to discriminate employees based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin.

It is important for business students to know that in workplace, it is against the law to discriminate someone when they are recruiting new employees or interacting with other co-workers. Students should also know the rights not to be discriminated against.

3. Today, is equal pay for equal work a reality in the United States?

I would say that equal pay for equal work is a reality in the United States. However, I am sure there are still cases across the country where you will hear inequality of pay at work.

I think it is already a reality because it is in our law in the Civil Rights Act, that it is illegal to discriminate against someone on the basis of their race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. The Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act allows equal-pay lawsuit to have the 180-day filing deadline extended to the latest paycheck. Nowadays, wherever there is injustice in related to equal-pay, it can be resolved by our legal system.

4. What other forms of discrimination occur in the workplace? Give at least one specific example from a news report or other quotable source.

Discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex and national origin exists in workplace. Also exists is pregnancy discrimination. Employers may refuse to hire a woman because she is pregnant or is considering becoming pregnant. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 addresses such issues. It amended Title VII to make it illegal to discriminate on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions. A female worker who becomes pregnant is entitled to work as long as she can perform her tasks, and her job must be held open for her while she is on maternity leave.

In the case Peggy Young vs UPS, Young took on a part-time role with UPS as a truck driver, picking up air shipments. Four years later, she took a leave of absence to receive in vitro fertilization. When she became pregnant and a midwife instructed her not to lift packages over 20 pounds, Young asked to return to UPS to do either light duty or her regular job as a truck driver, which seldom required her to lift heavy boxes. Her manager told her that UPS offered light duty to workers who sustained on-the-job injuries, employees with ailments covered by the Americans With Disabilities Act, and those who had lost Department of Transportation certification because of physical ailments; not—the manager said—to pregnant workers.

Young won the case in March 2015. The court ruled that Young had the right to sue UPS for pregnancy discrimination. The court did not issue a rigid rule that will dictate when an employer must make accommodations for a pregnant worker. Instead, Justice Breyer left a bit of wiggle room. He wrote, in essence, that if an employer is going to not accommodate a pregnant woman while accommodating other employees “similar in their ability or inability to work,” the employer must have a “legitimate, non-discriminatory reason” for doing so.

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