EEOC 'Tilting At Windmills'?

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission held a hearing Wednesday on the issue of hiring companies that discriminate against the unemployed. As in, "need a job to get a job." "At a moment when we all should be doing whatever we can to open up job opportunities to the unemployed, it is profoundly disturbing that the trend of deliberately excluding the jobless from work opportunities is on the rise," Christine Owens, Executive Director of the National Employment Law Project, testified at the hearing. "The use of an individual's current or recent unemployment status as a hiring selection device is a troubling development in the labor market," said Fatima Goss Graves, Vice President for Education and Employment of the National Women's Law Center. She noted that this practice "may well act as a negative counterweight" to government efforts to get people back to work. How the EEOC, which is charged with preventing workplace discrimination based on race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, and so on, can think to regulate discrimination against the unemployed is an interesting logical tweak. Since unemployment rates for women and people of color are higher than those of white males, discriminating against the unemployed can actually negatively affect minorities disproportionately. HRMorning.com's Tim Gould, however, isn't sure that this is actually happening. He says the EEOC's "tilting at a new windmill" and that there's "no real evidence employers are excluding the unemployed....Finally, why would any sensible employer do such a thing? We're assuming the normal company wants to hire the best fit for every open position. Why narrow the field of available candidates — especially using such an arbitrary standard?" Sorry, Mr. Gould, but in this case you're wrong. This kind of discrimination happens all the time. Whether the EEOC should be stepping in is another question entirely, but let's not pretend the problem doesn't exist.

Fishbowl

EEOC 'Tilting At Windmills'?

Rachel Kaufman

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Rachel Kaufman