All Articles Tagged "employment discrimination"
Jobs Bill Would Shield Out-of-Work Workers from Discrimination
(New York Times) – President Obama has not been particularly successful in fostering the creation of jobs. But he thinks he has found a way to pry open doors in the workplace for many of the unemployed, especially those who have been out of work for a long time. Mr. Obama’s jobs bill would prohibit employers from discriminating against job applicants because they are unemployed. Under the proposal, it would be “an unlawful employment practice” if a business with 15 or more employees refused to hire a person “because of the individual’s status as unemployed.” Unsuccessful job applicants could sue and recover damages for violations, just as when an employer discriminates on the basis of a person’s race, color, religion, sex or national origin. White House officials see discrimination against the unemployed as a serious problem. In a radio interview last month, Mr. Obama said such discrimination made “absolutely no sense,” especially at a time when many people, through no fault of their own, had been laid off.
The New Normal: To Get a Job, You Need a Job
(Christian Science Monitor) — Nearly a year after she lost her job at an IT help desk, Michelle Chesney-Offutt got a call from a job recruiter. “They were very excited about getting me up for an interview,” she recalls. But at the end of the chat, the recruiter noticed she’d been out of work for more than six months. The firm would not consider hiring anyone who had been out of work that long. ”I was in shock, because that makes no sense,” says the Sandwich, Ill., resident. “I can understand why in times past that would be a good indication of a person’s work ethic, but in the current situation” it’s not. Still out of work two years later, Ms. Chesney-Offutt’s situation represents the economy’s Catch-22 for the unemployed: The longer they’re out of work, the harder it is to find a job. Now, some employers have added a twist: They won’t even consider hiring someone who doesn’t hold a job. As GOP presidential candidates trade jabs about who has created more jobs and President Obama prepares to unveil his new jobs plan, this discrimination threatens to make it harder for the unemployed – even those who have been out of work for only a few weeks – to get their careers back on track.
Unemployed Need Not Apply
(New York Times) — The unemployed need not apply. That is the message being broadcast by many of the nation’s employers, making it even more difficult for 14 million jobless Americans to get back to work. A recent review of job vacancy postings on popular sites like Monster.com, CareerBuilder and Craigslist revealed hundreds that said employers would consider (or at least “strongly prefer”) only people currently employed or just recently laid off. Unemployed workers have long suspected that the gaping holes on their résumés left them less attractive to employers. But with the country in the worst jobs crisis since the Great Depression, many had hoped employers would be more forgiving.
Wal-Mart Wins Bias Suit; Women Vow to Fight
(Businessweek) — The women who sought to sue Wal-Mart Stores Inc. for gender bias on behalf of 1.5 million co-workers said they will press their fight against the nation’s largest private employer in smaller lawsuits in lower courts and claims with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday said the women failed to prove the world’s largest retailer had a nationwide policy that led to gender discrimination. The court deprived them of the leverage a nationwide suit brings, both in pooled legal resources and a potential multibillion-dollar verdict, forcing them to pursue claims on their own. “When I go back to work tomorrow, I’m going to let them know we are still fighting,” said Christine Kwapnoski, an assistant manager at a Sam’s Club in Concord, California. She had accused a male manager of yelling at female employees and telling her to “doll up” by wearing more makeup and dressing better while working on a loading dock.
Best Buy Settles Discrimination Suit
(Reuters) – Best Buy Co agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit accusing the largest U.S. electronics retailer of job discrimination, paying a total of $200,000 to the nine named plaintiffs plus as much as $10 million for legal fees and costs. The lawsuit was filed in 2005 in U.S. District Court in Oakland, California, by eight current and former employees and one job applicant. They accused Best Buy of infractions such as denying desirable job assignments and promotions and transfers to African-American, Latino and female employees. Best Buy agreed to a four-year consent decree, during which it would implement “comprehensive affirmative relief addressing the hiring, assignment, promotion and exempt compensation claims.”
How Prioritizing Family Can Jeopardize Your Job
(AOL) — While there’s no specific law covering discrimination against employees due to family responsibilities, there are laws that may protect you if your employer is big enough.
1. Sick/disabled family members: If an immediate family member (or you) has a medical condition that requires regular doctor’s appointments, you may well be entitled to up to 12 weeks a year of unpaid leave. This leave can be intermittent, which means that you get up to about 60 days a year or 480 hours. (That’s a whole lot of doctor’s appointments.) This applies only if you need to miss work for a serious medical condition of a family member, AND your employer has at least 50 employees, AND you’ve been there at least a year. If you know you will need this type of leave, make sure that you notify HR in advance so you make sure you’re covered. If you think you qualify and they claim you don’t, then contact an employment lawyer in your state to discuss your rights.
Sex Discrimination Slippery Charge for Transgendered
(New York Times) — What is a man? For El’Jai Devoureau, this is not a rhetorical question. Mr. Devoureau, who was born physically female, is a man at the Motor Vehicle Commission, at theSocial Security office, at home, at job interviews. But what about at the urinal? In a case with a truly unusual set of factors, Mr. Devoureau filed a discrimination lawsuit on Friday that could break new ground in New Jersey and across the country, turning on the question of who is or is not a man. An employer fired Mr. Devoureau because it said only a man was allowed to do his job: watching men urinate into plastic cups at a drug treatment center. Mr. Devoureau, 39, says he has identified himself as a man all his life. In 2006, after he began taking male hormones and had sex-change surgery, he adopted the name El’Jai (pronounced like L. J.). A new birth certificate issued by the State of Georgia identifies him as male, as does his New Jersey driver’s license, and the Social Security Administrationmade the change in its records.
