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Hiring Practices and Employment Discrimination

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Tim Rowe owns a small trucking firm that specializes in local and metro-area delivery in large city in the United States.
All employment activities are handled by Tim who has always hired employees on the basis of three qualifications:

1. They must have a high school diploma;
2. They must pass a short paper-and-pencil test which is given to all applicants; and
3. They must have a valid driver's license if applying for the position of driver.

The short test is interesting, as it was devised by Tim from sample questions found on a GED (General Education Degree) Equivalency Test. The test consists of 33 vocabulary and mathematical questions, each worth 3 points. Anyone scoring below 70 is automatically rejected.

Last month two drivers quit, so Tim advertised in the local paper for two new drivers. Ten people applied for the openings, but Tim rejected four applicants because they were not high school graduates. Three others were rejected because of test scores below 70. The two white males hired scored the highest on the test, had high school degrees, and also had valid driver's licenses.
This week Tim was notified that two equal employment complaints had been filed against him and his firm. One complaint, a woman, alleges that the test does not measure a person's ability to drive and is not a valid predictor of job success. The other complaint, a minority man, alleges that the high school diploma requirement is not related to ability to do the job and unfairly discriminates against minorities. Tim is trying to decide how to respond to these complaints.

Questions:

1. If you were an EEO investigator, how would you evaluate this selection procedure?

2. Which requirements might be viewed as job-related?

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Solution Summary

In reference to the scenario about fair hiring practices and job discrimination, this solution examines two questions: If you were an EEO investigator, how would you evaluate this selection procedure? Which requirements might be viewed as job-related? Supplemented with ywo resoruces that offers a a description of the EEOC (Employment Equal Opportunity Commission) investigative process and the federal laws that prohibit job discrimination.

Solution Preview

Hi,

Interesting questions! Let's take a closer look. I also attached two resources, which are referred to in this response.

RESPONSE:

1. If you were an EEO investigator, how would you evaluate this selection procedure?

In this scenario, EEOC has notified Tim that a charge of discrimination has been filed and will be provided with the name and contact information for the investigator (you) assigned to his case. Since a charge does not constitute a finding that your company engaged in discrimination, the EEOC has a responsibility to investigate and determine whether there is a reasonable cause to believe discrimination occurred. This would be your job as an EEO investigator, mainly to ask Tim and Charging Party to provide information. You will then evaluate the information submitted to determine whether unlawful discrimination has taken place. You might ask Tim to: submit a statement of position. This is Tim's opportunity to tell his side of the story and he should take advantage of it. You might ask Tim to respond to a Request for Information (RFI), which asks Tim to submit copies of personnel policies, Charging Party's personnel files, the personnel files of other individuals and other relevant information. You might also ask Tim to provide contact information for or have employees available for witness interviews, which might not apply in this case, however. Tim may be present during interviews with management personnel, but an investigator (you) is allowed to conduct interviews of non-management level employees without Tim's presence or permission.

Specifically, to evaluate the selection process, the EEO investigator (you) would use the discrimination laws that apply to the hiring and selection process. Although the number of laws and regulations governing the employment process have increased over the past four decades, some of them do not apply to this scenario but we will look at them all as many of these laws and regulations have important implications for conducting employment assessment.

1. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (CRA) of 1964, as amended in ...

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