• Harassmentbald senior man fooling around image by starush from Fotolia.com
  
  The American with Disabilities Act (ADA), Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) are federal laws that make it unlawful to discriminate against certain individuals in employment practices or conditions of employment. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has enforcement duties for these laws and considers "harassment" to be a form of discrimination. Each law provides protection from workplace harassment for different groups of people.
  
  

The American with Disabilities Act

• The American with Disabilities Act provides protection from employment discrimination based on a disability, history of disability or being regarded as having a disability. The EEOC defines disability harassment as making offensive remarks about a person's disability. Disability harassment may also include mocking a person's disability or asking the disabled employee to use a skill or body part that is impaired. The offensive comments and conduct are only harassment when they are so severe and pervasive that they create a hostile working environment, or the employee is subjected to an adverse employment action (i.e., hiring, demotion) because of the disability.
  
  

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act

• Title VII of the Civil Rights Act was established to prevent and provide protection against employment discrimination based upon a person's race, color, national origin, gender or religion. Harassing conduct may include racial slurs, mocking an employee's accent or teasing an employee for failing to conform to gender stereotypes. The EEOC makes it very clear that "isolated incidents" or "off-hand comments" are not considered harassment. The conduct must occur frequently and change the conditions of the work environment to the extent that it creates a hostile working environment.
  
  

Age Discrimination in Employment Act

• Employees 40 years and older are protected against workplace discrimination based on their age. Offensive conduct may include repeated questions about retirement and offensive remarks about a person's age. The ADEA does not protect individuals under 40 years old from workplace harassment. In addition, harassment can occur between employees who are both over 40 years old. The harassment must be frequent and severe so that it creates a hostile work environment, or an adverse employment action must have been taken as a result of the harassment and because of the employee's age.