Free Republic

Perhaps you have noticed that many jobs that require only basic skills and a cooperative attitude are now walled off to Americans who don’t possess a college degree. A recent study entitled Moving the Goalposts: How Demand for a Bachelor’s Degree is Reshaping the Workforce contains a lot of evidence on that. For example, for sales representatives and retail supervisors, 56 percent of recent job postings specify that having a college degree is a requirement. This doesn’t mean that those jobs have such high intellectual demands that no one without a college degree could possibly do them. What it means...

At a signing ceremony on Friday, the U.S. government, through the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Mexican government to allow Mexican Nationals – regardless of immigration status – to “exercise their workplace rights.” The MOU is consistent with the “core mission of this commission,” Mexican Ambassador to the United States Eduardo Medina Mora Icaza said, adding “that regardless of national origin or immigration status all workers have rights and there are processes to safeguard them.

An Alabama nursing home is being sued after it allegedly refused to allow a Muslim worker to wear a hijab on the job, according to a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission last week.  Shadescrest Health Care Center hired Tracy Martin as a certified nursing assistant in August 2012, according to the lawsuit. Martin reportedly wore the hijab on Aug. 9 and was told to “remove the head covering or be subject to termination,” according to the government'spress release published Monday. Martin filed a discrimination charge with the EEOC and was fired weeks after Shadescrest received notice of...

These Onionheads were a bunch of knuckleheads. The feds are suing a Long Island company that employees say they were forced to leave because they refused to participate in religious rites in the workplace called Onionhead — which included praying, thanking God for their jobs, and saying "I love you" to management and co-workers — a lawsuit charges. Three former employees complained to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and federal investigators confirmed that United Health Programs of America in Syosset and its parent company, Cost Containment Group, had discriminated against them based on religion.

When scholars enthuse over laws and regulations, they are often the last to notice the unintended consequences of the statutes and rules. “Why is every attempt that involves aggressive enforcement of civil rights laws against your views?” Columbia law professor Theodore M. Shaw asked at a Federalist Society meeting at the Mayflower hotel here in Washington last week. Shaw refused to entertain the possibility that the enforcement he desires may harm the very people the policies are designed to protect. For example, in April 2012, the U. S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission urged employers not to use criminal background checks...

I’ve already suggested that subsidies for the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development are the most wasteful and counterproductive item in the federal budget. At least on a per-dollar-spent basis. But what about a similar exercise for government red tape? How would we come up with the worst regulation or the most counterproductive regulatory agency? Thanks to the IRS, I have a strong candidate for the worst regulation, but if I had to pick the worst agency, I’d probably choose the horribly mis-named Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. These bureaucrats are infamous for bone-headed initiatives, such as: The EEOC making...

Civilian who killed Sailor at Naval Station Norfolk identified "Norfolk, Va. – The civilian gunman accused of killing a sailor aboard the destroyer Mahan on Monday night before being fatally shot is Jeffrey Tyrone Savage, the Navy announced on Thursday. The Navy says Savage, 35, drove his 2002 Freightliner through Gate 5 just after 11 p.m. He then went to Pier 1 and left the truck and tried to get onto the USS Mahan. He was stopped by security there and that’s when a struggle started. They say Savage disarmed a petty officer of the watch and Savage then used...

A new Obama administration policy that says criminal background checks are discriminatory against minority job applicants is “deeply flawed,” according to half of the commissioners who sit on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, the independent and bipartisan federal agency created by Congress decades ago. The administration has gone after companies that use criminal background checks to screen job applicants, claiming in lawsuits that the probes disproportionately exclude blacks from hire. In the last year the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency that enforces the nation’s workplace discrimination laws, has sued two large companies that screen criminal background...

Religious Discrimination Religious discrimination involves treating a person (an applicant or employee) unfavorably because of his or her religious beliefs. The law protects not only people who belong to traditional, organized religions, such as Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism, but also others who have sincerely held religious, ethical or moral beliefs. Religious discrimination can also involve treating someone differently because that person is married to (or associated with) an individual of a particular religion or because of his or her connection with a religious organization or group. The law forbids discrimination when it comes to any aspect of employment,...

At least one state has gone to court to fight the Obama administration’s preposterous new regulation limiting employers’ rights to ban hiring felons because it discriminates against minorities. It’s been an ongoing battle between a number of companies and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency that enforces the nation’s workplace discrimination, for years. Under Obama the agency has dedicated extensive resources to go after businesses that check criminal background records to screen job applicants. In 2012 the EEOC officially adopted guidelines that limit employers’ ability to exclude felons from jobs. The agency has also sued companies for...

In a painful defeat for the Obama administration, a federal appellate court has overturned a judge’s ruling that a clothing retailer discriminated against a Muslim woman for denying her a job because she wore a religious headscarf known as a hijab. The lawsuit was filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency that enforces the nation’s workplace discrimination laws. Under Obama the agency has brought a number of similar lawsuits on behalf of Muslims around the country alleging violations of religious and civil rights. In this case the agency accuses a retail giant, Abercrombie & Fitch, of...

When a Muslim woman sought employment at a Tulsa, Okla. Abercrombie & Fitch store in 2008, she showed up to her interview wearing a headscarf associated with her faith. The potential employer notified Samantha Elauf that her appearance violated the store’s policy and chose not to hire her. As is the norm in today’s overly litigious culture, she pursued legal action against the company for perceived discrimination.While a federal judge ruled in favor of Elauf and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, that decision was recently overturned by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Indicating that the applicant never sought...

Pressured by the federal government, states and municipalities across the U.S. are adopting senseless measures restricting employers from asking job applicants about criminal history. The Obama administration claims criminal background checks are discriminatory because they disproportionately exclude minorities—especially blacks—from hire. That’s why the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency that enforces the nation’s workplace discrimination laws, is spending taxpayer dollars suing companies that run criminal background checks on job applicants. Besides litigation, the administration is working behind the scenes by offering local governments “guidance” on passing measures banning criminal background checks. The laws are known as “ban the...

The Obama administration’s claim that criminal background checks discriminate against minority job applicants suffered a lashing from a federal court that found the allegations “laughable,” “distorted,” “cherry-picked,” “worthless” and “an egregious example of scientific dishonesty.” That kind of whipping from a federal judge has got to hurt though it’s unlikely to deter the administration from spending more taxpayer dollars to file frivolous lawsuits against employers who use the checks to screen job applicants. Judicial Watch wrote about this a few weeks ago when the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency that enforces the nation’s workplace discrimination laws, sued...

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) of the Obama administration  has just recently signed an agreement with Mexico's government vowing to prevent workplace discrimination against illegal immigrants while educating them about their civil rights and minimum wage laws. The EEOC is the federal agency that enforces the nation's workplace discrimination laws. Prevent workplace discrimination against illegal immigrants? Use tax-payer money to educate them about their civil rights? Yes. That's right. The agreement is designed to protect Mexican nationals "regardless of immigration status." The Democratic party has really become the IFP party: the Immigrants First Party.  Not only do their policies...

The United States has signed an agreement with Mexico’s government vowing to prevent workplace discrimination against illegal immigrants while educating them about their civil rights and minimum wage laws. It’s a nifty little contract signed this month by the federal agency that enforces the nation’s workplace discrimination laws, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). In a press release the EEOC calls it a “historic outreach agreement” that will solidify the agency’s “continued and longstanding commitment to this underserved community.” Under the deal, American taxpayers will provide Spanish-language materials explaining the laws enforced by the EEOC and the agency will partner...

ABM Security Services Inc., which employs security officers for the Pennsylvania Convention Center, will pay $65,000 to resolve a lawsuit over the firing of a Muslim security officer who refused to remove her head scarf, or khimar, a day after she was hired in February 2011, the Philadelphia office of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced. The EEOC had filed the religious discrimination suit on behalf of Tahira B. El, of Philadelphia. The money goes to El, the EEOC said, and New York-based ABM will revise its dress code to add a religious exception for sincerely held religious beliefs,...

Of all the depressing facts about the once great City of Detroit, this to me is the most upsetting: In 1950, there were about 296,000 manufacturing jobs in Detroit. Today, there are less than 27,000. Government -- federal, state, and local -- made this happen. I know this from experience. Government corrupted the Detroit work force. That corruption drove away my company too. Until 1984, I was a business owner in the city, employing about 20. I moved my business 60 miles away. I didn't want to leave, but I was, in effect, forced to. Many think that crime spurred...

Suppose you own a business and put out an ad for people who want a job. Many apply. You run background checks, including criminal checks, which are perfectly legal. You learn that some of the prospective employees have criminal records. And you decide you’d rather not have a convicted thief working the cash register at your business or you think it’s better that you don’t hire someone with a violent past, fearing he might hit a customer or fellow worker who looks at him the wrong way. Or maybe you figure, you just don’t want convicted criminals in your company....

In 1963, the great civil rights leader Martin Luther King said it was his hope that black Americans would no longer be judged on their color of their skin, but on the content of their character. Fifty years later, the Obama administration's Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says King got it wrong. The EEOC launched two lawsuits against private companies this week over their use of criminal background checks, claiming that in rejecting applicants with proven criminal records, they somehow discriminated against minorities under a disparate impact clause in their guidelines. Aside from the inherent and insulting racism in that presumption...