Free Republic

Federal regulators Tuesday accused two large employers of improperly using criminal-background checks in hiring, the latest salvo in a contentious debate over whether such screening amounts to discrimination against black applicants. In complaints filed in federal courts in Illinois and South Carolina, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said two companies discount retailer Dollar General Corp. and a U.S. unit of German auto maker BMW AG generally barred potential employees based on the criminal checks, when they should have reviewed each applicant. The commission said the policies had the effect of discriminating against black applicants. The suits underscore increasing government scrutiny...

With no authority to do so and with flawed factual support, the EEOC has issued an enforcement guideline that would compel employers to discriminate in favor of minority ex-cons. It's past time for Congress to rein in the EEOC and make them withdraw this directive by other name. (a) The EEOC Enforcement Guidance Procedure Over 89 million Americans are presently out of the labor force. The New York Times seems to offer a muddled explanation for the fact that employers have money to hire but aren't doing so even when they need extra help. The Federal Reserve's vision is less...

Employers in the U.S. may soon have to hire more workers with criminal backgrounds under new equality guidelines issued by the federal government. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s guidelines warn companies against rejecting minority applicants who have committed a felony or other offense, recommending that those companies eliminate policies which ‘exclude people from employment based on a criminal record.’ According to the EEOC, civil rights laws already prohibit employers from selectively hiring job applicants who are of different ethnic backgrounds but have matching criminal histories. The latest update from the EEOC was issued out of concern that employers might disproportionally...

The EEOC ignored that judicial thrashing and pressed on. Last April, the agency unveiled its "Enforcement Guidance on the Consideration of arrest and Conviction Records in Employment Decisions," declaring that "criminal record exclusions have a disparate impact based on race and national origin."

(starting on page 2) . . . The president is staying in Florida at the home of Jim Crane, who owns the golf club and also owns the Houston Astros baseball team. In 2012, Mr. Crane donated $35,800 to the Obama campaign and $30,800 to the Democratic National Committee. Fifteen years ago, a company owned by Mr. Crane, Eagle USA Airfreight, was criticized by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for its position on hiring blacks and women of child-bearing age. The EEOC said that Mr. Crane’s company conducted a practice of paying “female and minority employees less than white men...

EEOC now considers the widespread use of criminal background checks to hire employees as having a "disparate impact" on minorities. Going to harass employers more over them.

The Obama administration’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says it should be a federal crime to refuse to hire ex-convicts — and threatens to sue businesses that don’t employ criminals. In April, the EEOC unveiled its “Enforcement Guidance on the Consideration of Arrest and Conviction Records,” which declares that “criminal record exclusions have a disparate impact based on race and national origin.” The impetus for this “guidance” is that black men are nearly seven times more likely than white men to serve time in prison, and therefore refusals to hire convicts disproportionally impact blacks, according to a Wall Street Journal opinion...

Some advice to the folks at Marylou’s coffee chain, now under investigation by the EEOC, on how to fight back: Start laughing. Back during the Clinton years the EEOC went after Hooters for its alleged hiring bias (we all remember how hard Bill Clinton was on women... uh, let me re-phrase that). Hooters refused to hire men to wear the infamous “orange short-shorts and white tank-top” ensemble. The EEOC spent four years pressuring them to hire male waiters, which would have ruined the Hooters concept. Hooters tried reasoning and logic. As one would expect when dealing with bureaucrats, they failed...

Some advice to the folks at Marylou’s coffee chain, now under investigation by the EEOC, on how to fight back: Start laughing. Back during the Clinton years the EEOC went after Hooters for its alleged hiring bias (we all remember how hard Bill Clinton was on women . . . uh, let me re-phrase that). Hooters refused to hire men to wear the infamous “orange short-shorts and white tank-top” ensemble. The EEOC spent four years pressuring them to hire male waiters, which would have ruined the Hooters concept. Hooters tried reasoning and logic. As one would expect when dealing with bureaucrats, they...

South Shore coffee chain Marylou’s is singing the blues over a federal employment-discrimination investigation, crying foul that the feds are going after its long-standing practice of hiring bubbly young bombshells to peddle the shop’s trademark joe. Company vice president Ronnie Sandry told the Herald that Marylou’s hiring is limited by its pool of applicants, who tend to be young women from the heavily white South Shore. ‘When you’re hiring a police officer, certain people show up,” Sandry said. “When you’re hiring a Patriots cheerleader, certain people show up. When we’re hiring, certain people apply, and we have no control over...

When power is placed in the hands of a usurper like Barack Obama, all thought of accepting authority of the other branches of government as delegated by the Constitution is rejected. Three years in office have seen Obama use the various agencies of the executive branch to break countless federal statutes, rob states of their legislative prerogatives and flout the authority of the congress and the courts. Obama’s Department of Justice has actively prevented South Carolina, Arizona, Texas and others from implementing voter ID laws designed to prevent the widespread incidents of fraud so instrumental to the success of the...

WASHINGTON -- Is an arrest in a barroom brawl 20 years ago a job disqualifier? Not necessarily, the government said Wednesday in new guidelines on how employers can avoid running afoul of laws prohibiting job discrimination. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's updated policy on criminal background checks is part of an effort to rein in practices that can limit job opportunities for minorities that have higher arrest and conviction rates than whites. But some employers say the new policy -- approved in a 4-1 vote -- could make it more cumbersome and expensive to conduct background checks. Companies see the...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a first-of-its-kind ruling, the government says transgender people are protected under federal employment discrimination laws. The decision from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission late last week says employers cannot discriminate on the basis of gender identity.

Court ruling makes it harder for EEOC to pursue discrimination cases in the Midwest, maybe nationally CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa -- They were learning to become truck drivers, but wound up in a nightmare. In detailed accounts to a federal agency, dozens of female employees of one of the nation's largest trucking companies told of being propositioned, groped and even assaulted by male drivers during cross-country training rides. "I was beaten, I was fondled, I was humiliated and I was taught nothing," one trainee, Ramona Villareal, said in a deposition. But rather than leading to a workplace discrimination judgment, the Equal...

Employers are facing more uncertainty in the wake of a letter from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission warning them that requiring a high school diploma from a job applicant might violate the Americans with Disabilities Act. The development also has some wondering if the agency’s advice will result in an educational backlash by creating less of an incentive for some high-school students to graduate. The “informal discussion letter” from the EEOC said an employer’s requirement of a high school diploma, long a standard criteria for screening potential employees, must be “job-related for the position in question and consistent with business...

In yet another stunning attack on freedom of religion, President Barack Obama's Justice Department asked the Supreme Court last week to give the federal government the power to tell a church who its ministers will be. The case involves a former teacher at Lutheran school, who along with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is pushing a claim that a Lutheran congregation should be forced to restore her ministry position. Americans United for Separation of Church and State and American Atheists, Inc. have filed briefs siding with the Obama administration against the church. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Church...

Last month, my fellow Chicagoan sent to Congress his latest misguided plan to bolster the U.S. economy. In his speech announcing the American Jobs Act, the president declared, without equivocation, that the bill was all or nothing.  “No games. No politics. No delays," he said, adding that he would veto any changes made by Republican lawmakers. In his effort to perpetuate the myth that government creates jobs, Obama performed some deft slight-of-hand. For instance, he failed to mention the fact that his $450 billion jobs bill will be funded by the largest tax increase in history, coming to a W-2...

Citing a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Obama administration is suing a trucking company for taking the keys away from an Arkansas driver and eventually firing him after he admitted he was battling alcohol abuse. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit this week arguing that Old Dominion Freight Line discriminated against Charles Grams by stripping him of his position and offering him a demotion even if he completed a substance abuse counseling program.

Starbucks has settled a suit for $75,000 with a woman who claimed she was fired because she is a dwarf. According to Reuters, Elsa Sallard, a barista at a store in El Paso, TX, requested a stool or small stepladder to do her job. Starbucks denied the request and fired her that same day in 2009. The company said she could have been a danger to employees and customers. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which filed the lawsuit in May, said after three days of training, the store should have made a reasonable accommodation for the woman. Robert Canino,...

The story is almost old hat these days. Despite constant warnings to be careful what you post on Facebook, a disgruntled employee who is irritated at a boss, a customer or a co-worker, takes to the social networking site to vent some spleen — and ends up getting disciplined or even fired. It’s a fate that has befallen a North Carolina waitress at a pizza restaurant, a Philadelphia Eagles stadium worker and a group of airline workers in recent months. But what if it’s the boss who decides to use Facebook to complain about an employee?