Posted on 08/10/2007 5:27:29 AM PDT by TornadoAlley3
. . . China.
Federal contractors “must ensure that a test is valid for the particular job if it disproportionately screens out applicants from a protected group,”
The employer is required by law to identify the applicants by race (even if they don't want to be identified).
I don't know if you've ever seen how an illiterate person handles a test, but it's usually pretty obvious ~ it's not just that none of the answers are correct ~ rather, it's like they didn't realize what the questions were, or, many times, where they were!
An employment auditor might go through the employer's records, including those tests, and recognize the problem. In any case, the employer admits the test wasn't an indicator of job performance for the positions for which people were applying.
So now being illiterate is a 'protected' status? I really shouldn't read this stuff first thing in the morning because now I'm going to seeth about this all darn day.
"Utility workers at a paper mill don't need to read well, according to the U.S. Department of Labor."
When did we turn it over to the government to decide what the qualifications of employees must be?
"Prats-Swanson said literacy matters because Georgia-Pacific, which is based in Atlanta, often promotes rather than hiring upper-level workers from outside - and literacy is important for higher level jobs."
Now when the company has higher-end jobs to fill, they will be forced to look outside of current employees, and this will no doubt bring additional lawsuits against the company. This is insane.
If these are the rules that big business must abide by, I can see why they would want to move offshore or south of the border. PC is killing America.
This is a traditional rural area in the Souf’. White folks are respected if not loved in such places.
It’s not uncommon (nor is it in anyway wrong) for companies that hire from within to want to have the most qualified candidates fill even their lowest skilled positions.
I’m going to find a lawyer to bring suit against the Department of Defense. Every single person I ever knew that took the ASVAB test was only allowed to enlist, not a single one was given a commission. Talk about a discriminatory test!
Big complaint in America ~ always has been.
However, the specific jobs for which people were being hired were the ones where you didn't know how to read.
It seems one of the primary methods of determining literacy was to have an applicant read a bus schedule.
I've often suspected that top management in the paper industry were fully capable of reading bus schedules but not anyting else, and there we have it. They really are dumb as a board.
I will call my old buddies at the Postal Service and let them know about this ~ they'll have a good laugh.
When Georgia-Pacific was bought by its current owners, every employee at each paper mill was fired, then they were invited to apply for a reduced number of positions at the mill. I suspect the Labor Department has been scrutinizing GA-PAC for quite some time...
And if they operate like most other businesses, those “utility worker” positions are stepping stones to higher-level positions. So why shouldn’t GP be able to hire the most capable candidate for the position, even if that position doesn’t require the skills being tested for?
This is an ignorant ruling. Every American needs to read well.
Reading is the basic education. Read and you can teach yourself any other subject.
In fact, Reading is a safety issue.
I tinc I cud maka liven phalen letresi teztz...
It should be up to the employer and no one else to formulate hiring tests and policies.
If so and so person wants to change the company’s policies, then they should simply buy the company and then do it.
As an example, an employer might administer an "English Test" but if the job is basic factory work and that test asks questions about Shakespeare, it would be going beyond the reasonable expectations for the work.
It might have been unintentional, or it could have been devised as a way to avoid hiring blacks. The fact the company didn't appeal the ruling is interesting...
“Georgia-Pacific won’t have to worry about this sort of thing if they move their plant to Chin.”
Many segments of the forest products industry already have been ‘off shored’.
I have no sympathy for America’s poor or working class voters because they voted in the crypto-socialists who drove their employers off shore.
As the Chinese said, “Foolish man break own rice bowl.”
Wonder how much they’ll compensate illegals who failed the test? After all, it’s about literacy right. Not race or immigration status.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.