EEOC Probes Discrimination Against Unemployed Workers in Hiring

[Dulcinea]

The practice of employers, recruiters and staffing firms discriminating against unemployed job-seekers in the hiring process is an issue we have helped bring to light here at Unemployedworkers.org with the help of outraged jobless workers who have contacted us to describe their own experiences.

Testifying at the session, Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project (NELP) and a member of the Unemployedworkers.org team, said that practices barring the unemployed from job availabilities have been growing around the country — and place a disproportionate burden on older workers, African Americans, and other workers facing high levels of long-term unemployment.

“There is a disturbing and growing trend among employers and staffing firms to refuse to even consider the unemployed for available job openings, regardless of their qualifications,” said Owens. “ Excluding unemployed workers from employment opportunities is unfair to workers, bad for the economy, and potentially violates basic civil rights protections because of the disparate impact on older workers, workers of color, women and others. At a time when we should be doing whatever we can to open up job opportunities, it is profoundly disturbing to see deliberate exclusion of the jobless from work opportunities. The National Employment Law Project commends the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for examining this issue,” she said.

Owens and other witnesses presented numerous examples of job postings and recruitment advertisements explicitly excluding people due to their status or duration of unemployment. Helen Norton, Associate Professor at the University of Colorado School of Law, detailed how employers and staffing agencies have publicly advertised jobs in a wide variety of fields -- ranging from electronic engineers to restaurant and grocery managers to mortgage underwriters -- with the explicit restriction that only currently employed candidates will be considered.

http://unemployedworkers.org/sites/unemployedworkers/index.php/site/blog_entry/eeoc_probes_discrimination_against_unemployed_workers_in_hiring

This is unfair at best and discriminatory at worst.

[drm604]

1. And then some people have to nerve to blame the unemployed for not having a job.

:grr:

[babylonsister]

2. Good; I hope something comes of this. nt

[bluestateguy]

3. This definintley needs to be made to stop

Unless someone is unemployed due to losing their job for cause (they were a crook or an incompetent at their old job) such discrimination should be illegal.

Some type of a requirement that employers at least interview a certain percentage of unemployed people for open positions would be reasonable.

[drm604]

4. Disgusting. n/t

[doc03]

5. I was laid off from a very well paying union job for over a year

and everyone knew nobody would hire us for two reasons.
1. We were union and they didn't want union people influencing their workforce.
2. All the employers knew if we were recalled to our job we would quit.
I just got tied of going through the motions of searching for work that you couldn't get and dealing with the red tape required to get the unemployment. Soon as I turned 62 I just took my retirement and called it quits.

[Dulcinea]

6. How about tax breaks for hiring the unemployed?

The employer gets a tax credit. The unmeployed worker gets a job. Everyone wins!

[elehhhhna]

7. already in place. my old boss laid 2 people off & replaced us w/ cheaper, tax-break employees

so that backfired.

[drm604]

8. Those breaks should have had some more requirements,

like having to increase the overall size of the company's workforce and not reducing the existing payroll.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

9. That doesn't make a shred of sense

Although some people need 2 or 3 jobs to survive in today's economy (thank you, George W. Bush and the GOP! :eyes:), there are, of course, a lot of people whom don't have any job and whose circumstances would be greatly improved by having just one. Granted there may be some people whom are not only unemployed but simply "unemployable" due to some kind of personal flaw or circumstance that they need to address in order to even be capable of working but how many staffing agencies and other businesses expect to find prospective employees whom are already working other jobs and, more importantly, how do they expect them to be available to work for them (and give them their best effort) if they're already working elsewhere?
:wtf:

[treestar]

10. In an era of high unemployment, that's the stupidest snobbery ever

Jerks.

Though, at least, the person they hire is vacating another opening, so it should not affect overall job availability. Still, different people are qualified for different jobs, and this is just plain outright assholery.