Posted on 09/26/2011 11:29:43 AM PDT by reaganaut1
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 like 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.
Mr. Obama’s proposal would also prohibit employment agencies and Web sites from carrying advertisements for job openings that exclude people who are unemployed. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has received reports of such advertisements but does not have data to show how common they are.
Republicans and some employers criticized the White House proposal. They said that discrimination was not common and that the proposed remedy could expose employers to a barrage of lawsuits.
“We do not see a need for it,” said Michael J. Eastman, executive director of labor law policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Already, Mr. Eastman said, the Civil Rights Act outlaws employment practices that have “a disparate impact on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin,”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
:)
Ageism is hard to prove though.
Another aspect is that if a person takes lower paying employment and gets laid off again,the amount they get on unemployment will be based on that lower amount. It’s very troubling,especially after reading through this thread and seeing that people who are unemployed for 12 or so months are considered lazy,out of touch with innovations,having eroded social skills and the like.
So a person with a solid work history for years becomes umemployed for an extended period and is then considered by potential employers to be worthless. It’s both ridiculous and tragic.
You forgot Christian :)
You make great comments. Thank you for adding common sense to this thread.
I have never known a highly qualified person in a hard to fill skill set job that didn't get constant calls of job offers while they were employed. Perhaps there are some, but I've never known of it.
I used to get several job offers a week. I've been retired for many years and still get calls at home about employment.
You can move, change phone numbers, don't matter, they will track you down.
That is called ‘dropped out of the job market’ not unemployed. Unless one is drawing unemployment they aren't classified as such and few employers will hold that against them. It happens often in two income household that one will take a break from working.
That is my point. And if you were laid off you would not even get the call if the headhunter had a requirement that the candidate must be currently employed. But I agree the hard to find skills set is a rarity. What is not is the good salesman or admin assistant who is laid off from a company that went out of business in this environment.Having hired many salesmen in the past I can tell you that there is just as much a chance of finding a good salesman who is unemployed from a company that went out of business as there is among employed applicants many of whom are seeking to switch because their sales numbers are in the lower quintiles and they see the writing on the wall.Inflexible no employed need apply rules ties a sales manager hands from doing his own weeding out.
“That is my point. And if you were laid off you would not even get the call if the headhunter had a requirement that the candidate must be currently employed.”
If the plant was closing they would likely have called the best ones as soon as the info was out about the closing.
U R right
Hey me too. Maybe the Jerry Springer show or a cool HOUSEMATES from Hell" show. You know pooping where the outhouse should be( the new Joisey pool room or peeing in the hot tub" Damun never seen such a crappse this size, guess the guy is really fat , well what the hey'ziiiiip") starting a fire in the living room tearing apart all the furniture for kindling and dumpster diving the neighbors homes! Damun that would be fun fun fun.I hope maybe they'll give us low income housing welfare and a mercedes like I've seen( never rec'd welfare BUT I seen them illegals and others dropped off in RICH cars, all living with the best Kaker gears , 200+ tennis shoes, and them cares, jiguars and Mercedes and beemers and there I was photographing until some guy wanted to break my cameras...but maybe they'll give us the "big house' and a mercedes LOL. But hell I'll setttle for a Beemer wouldn't you..heh protected class? Do we get to go to museums for free? Can we protest with the muzzies...i mean plant bombs in Dearborn and stuff, hell we're PROTECTED, it's what we mountain critters do!
In large cites in the real world it does not work that way.Most hires are not made from active solicitations of the currently employed by employers who are about to go out of business. A few are but they are the exception rather than the rule. Many general skills jobs are either advertised or word is put out and referrals are made.If a referral is made and a qualified candidate is out of work, they are out of luck under a no unemployed need apply rule.From a personal experience perspective, a hiring manager may be just as suspect as why the employed candidate in front me of is looking to switch.My experience in hiring currently employed sales people is that most had poor sales numbers. From a business perspective, a top down inflexible no unemployed need not apply rule prejudging the field and dictating who a manager must not hire is just as unwise as a congressional legislation dictating who must be hired.
I bolded those comparative words because that is precisely the point. No screening tool is perfect -- not interviews, not resumes, not recommendations, and not whether they've been unemployed for an extended period. However, just because those screening tools aren't perfect doesn't mean they're not useful, or that employers aren't being reasonable in using those screening mechanisms.
Employment is a zero sum game -- if one person gets a job, someone else doesn't. The real problem is that not enough new jobs are being created. If net jobs are being created, then someone, somewhere, would have to be hiring the unemployed by definition. When you forbid employers form considering employment status, the most you're accomplishing is shuffling the individuals who are among the unemployed. You're not actually reducing unemployment at all.
Stupid, stupid proposal.
How about getting rid of NAFTA instead?
Sharp as an orange.
Exactly. This whore is the epitome of the RATS. Anything that will keep them in office.
Its certainly possible for a IT worker in their 50’s or older being out of work that long. You realize how hard it is to get work even with relevant skills, given the huge numbers of foreign born young IT workers in the country?
Go ahead and tar good people with that brush, but remember that sooner or later you will also be older and get to experience the smirks on the faces of interviewers young enough to be our kids.
No one in the Hood left behind program.....?
I honestly believe that Engineers need to unionize.
What other profession has it’s own Visa category to keep wagers low? (H-1B Visa) You don’t see Visa’s for Medical Doctors, or any other white collar profession.
We are skilled, we are educated, we are dedicated - and we are being sold down the river.
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