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 Katz, Marshall & Banks, LLP Associate Alison Asarnow and Partner Debra S. Katz have published the article “Stop the bias against the jobless” in The National Law Journal, explaining the urgent need to pass the Fair Employment Opportunity Act, which would ban recruiters and employers from refusing to consider applicants because they are unemployed – an increasingly prevalent practice during the current recession.  Asarnow and Katz explain that many employers’ refusal to consider unemployed applicants “reinforces a permanent underclass and may well subject employers to claims of discrimination based on a disparate-impact theory of discrimination, given that it has the hardest impact on older workers, disabled workers, racial minorities and women.”  Though the Civil Rights Act of 1991 codified existing Supreme Court precedent banning facially neutral policies which fall more harshly on one group than another, it is important that hiring which discriminates against the unemployed be banned explicitly, because the continued normalization of these practices would undermine the public policy behind existing anti-discrimination laws, exacerbating preexisting discriminatory practices.  As the prevalence of such practices remains unchecked, “that new boss who comes in and decides not to treat employees of a certain race with respect will have no incentive to behave appropriately and lawfully, because she knows no one will dare report her to human resources if they ever want to work again. The boss who conditions a promotion on sexual favors knows he will get them; faced with an alternative of never working again, his subordinate will see no choice but to go along. The new mother or father will think twice about taking any Family and Medical Leave Act-protected time off with the birth of a baby; the sick or injured will put off needed treatment or surgery rather than risk throwing away their entire careers over missing a few weeks of work.” Further, Asarnow and Katz explain, employees with unique information of corrupt practices at their workplace will be less likely to blow the whistle on their employers, risking a retaliatory termination, casting them into the ranks of the unemployed.

Read  “Stop the bias against the jobless.”