‘Unemployed’ Protected From Employers

Katy Grimes: The state is trying to prevent employers from legally looking into the employment backgrounds of job applicants.

A bill claiming to “protect” the unemployed from discrimination by potential employers is making its way through the Legislature.

The government already protects racial minorities, veterans, older workers, women, pregnant women, breastfeeding women, children, the disabled, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and religious individuals.

AB 1450, by Assemblyman Michael Allen, D-Santa Rosa, would prohibit employers from turning away applicants because they are unemployed, and states that employment status cannot used as consideration during the application, hiring and employment process.

There have been many attempts to add to the protected classifications including weight, and those living in areas of “general economic distress.”

Employers now face crimes of every imaginable kind because of California’s vast overreach into the workplace.  Any state agency investigator, whether from OSHA, Cal EPA, water resources, air resources, immigration, the fire marshall, parking enforcement, and all of the taxing agencies, can make an unannounced visit to employers, and demand to see documentation regarding the agency, or make a site visit to look for violations.

And on any given day, there isn’t an employer in the state who wouldn’t be cited for some random violation.

The state is now trying to look into the hearts of Human Resource managers to determine if they are discriminating against the unemployed.

When I was a HR manager, I coached my manufacturing managers to be wary of job applicants who might be government plants looking for ADA violators, discrimination cases, employment law violations, and the like. There are lawyers who also send fake applicants on job interviews, looking for employers to set up and sue.

In the manufacturing company in which I worked, a classified advertisement for a job often netted many applicants. But I was suspicious if a disabled person applied for a very physically demanding job. I was suspicious if a woman applied for a physical or dirty job historically held by strong, burley men. And, I was most suspicious of age discrimination cases – when someone nearing retirement applied for an entry-level job, or something they were grossly overqualified for.

This is what California’s ridiculous employment and discrimination laws have done to employers.

Now employers will have to be on the lookout for the unemployed – what an oxymoron.

Unfortunately, many of the habitually unemployed are unemployable. They don’t want a full-time job. But the Employment Development Department and CalWorks programs require them occasionally to prove they are actively looking for work.

If AB 1450 passes, those same people will be able to claim they were discriminated against if they are not offered the job.

Private sector employers tend to hire based on need, and do not make hiring decisions based on gender, race or other categories. It’s only the government which hires based on gender, sexual orientation, race, religion or veteran status. And it’s only the government which is always exempt from its own laws.

This bill is proof that California needs a part-time Legislature. Instead of working, California employers spend more than half of their time fending off the thousands of bad laws cooked up by a mostly irrelevant, tainted and mercenary state Legislature.

MAR. 22, 2012