The Legal Environment of Human Resources Management 67because of race, sex, color, religion, or national origin. In St. Mary ’ s Honor
Center v. Hicks (1993), the Court ruled that in addition to showing that all
of the employer ’ s legal reasons are false, an employee must prove that the
employer was motivated by bias and show direct evidence of discrimination.Disparate Impact
Disparate impact occurs when an employer ’ s policy or practice, neutral
on its face and in its application, has a negative effect on the employ-
ment opportunities of protected - class individuals. Neutral means that the
employer requires all applicants or employees to take the same examination
or possess the same qualifi cations for the positions. Unlike the examples
provided under disparate treatment, in which the employer deliberately
treated males and females or black and white applicants and employees
differently, under disparate impact all applicants and employees are treated
the same, but protected - class members are not hired or promoted. Such
impact is illegal if the employment practice is not job related or is un-
related to the employment in question. For example, if an agency hired
fi fty whites and no Hispanics from one hundred white and one hundred
Hispanic applicants, disparate impact has occurred. Whether the employer
had good intentions or did not mean to discriminate is irrelevant to the
courts in this type of lawsuit. After the plaintiff shows evidence of disparate
impact, the employer must carry the burden of producing evidence of
business necessity or job relatedness for the employment practice. Finally,
the burden shifts back to the plaintiff, who must show that an alternative
procedure is available that is equal to or better than the employer ’ s practice
and has a less discriminatory effect.
The Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures were
jointly adopted in 1978 by the EEOC, the U.S. Civil Service Commis-
sion, the Department of Labor, and the Department of Justice. Although
they are not administrative regulations, they are granted deference by
the courts. Their purpose is to provide a framework for determining the
proper use of tests and other selection procedures. They are applicable to
all employers: federal, state, local, nonprofi t, and private.
The Uniform Guidelines and many courts have adopted the four -
fi fths rule as a yardstick for determining disparate impact: a selection rate,
determined by the number of applicants selected divided by the number
who applied, for a protected group should not be less than four - fi fths, or
80 percent, of the rate for the group with the highest selection rate.
Disparate impact theory has been used in many cases involving neu-
tral employment practices such as tests, entrance requirements, and physical