When were you born? Are you married? Do you have any kids?
All seemingly innocuous topics that might come up in a conversation, but all questions that are illegal when asked in the context of a job interview.
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At the Rhode Island Commission for Human Rights, which enforces the Fair Employment Practices Act, they get about 100 calls a year from people complaining they were asked inappropriate questions or were discriminated against somehow while applying for a job, according to Gene Booth, the commission’s executive director. It may be surprising to hear in this age of political correctness, but Booth said there are still people who will ask hot button questions.
“Still some employers will ask your date of birth, that’s clearly illegally,” Booth said. “I think generally across all industries people tend to try to weed people out when they get elderly.”
Ageism is the fourth most reported form of employment discrimination in Rhode Island, he said, adding the commission received 81 complaints about age discrimination in fiscal 1998. About eight of those cases involved interviewers asking about a job applicant’s age, Booth said.
The number one complaint over the past few years has involved disabilities, both physical and mental, with race and gender discrimination, which also includes sexual harassment cases, rounding out the list of frequent complaints. The commission dealt with 96 racial discrimination cases, 49 gender bias and 51 sexual harassment cases in fiscal 1998, according to Booth. A majority of the gender bias cases involved women losing jobs to male applicants.
Steven Brown, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of R.I., said his organization also receives occasional complaints from job seekers, but more often than not it’s because of inappropriate questions listed on a company’s application form and not questions asked during an interview. Many of the offending questions are about disabilities and age.
“These usually get resolved with a letter or phone call to the employer pointing out the impropriety of the questions,” Brown explained.
There are a few instances, however, called bona fide occupation qualification, when employers can ask about subjects such as age. For instance, police departments often have a minimum age requirement when hiring officers. Employers can also ask “whether the applicant is able to perform the job with reasonable accommodations,” although they cannot ask outright whether a person has a disability, Brown said.
If a person feels he or she has been asked an inappropriate question, Brown said, “my advice is to call an agency like ours.”
“There are certainly some legal ramifications in today’s world that people have to be aware of.You could jeopardize your company by asking questions that are illegal,” said James Meyer, president of Management Search of R.I., Inc. Employees at the company’s Providence office conduct roughly 2,000 interviews a year, while helping clients fill jobs for everything from accountants to engineers.
If a client asks his firm to ask about an applicant’s age, race or other background, Meyer said, “we have to tell them that’s an illegal request. Any person who’s qualified for the position, we have to be then able to show to the client.
“There have been cases in our industry where people from federal agencies have gone in to interview – and this happens mostly with temp firms – have gone in to see if there are biases in their interview process,” said Meyer, adding investigative reporters from TV news show like “60 Minutes” and “20/20” have conducted similar operations. “There are some firms out there that unfortunately don’t follow the law.”
Companies that don’t follow the law face potentially stiff penalties.
Human Rights Commissioners here can, if they find evidence of discrimination in hiring practices, order a company to pay lost wages to the complainant, as well as that person’s legal fees, punitive damages and other penalties. “It could be substantial depending on the case,” Booth said.
Commission decisions can be appealed in Superior Court.
“We find probable cause between a low of 12 percent to a high of 18 percent of total case that we process,” he added. “Between 30 and 35 percent of the time, the facts do not substantiate the complaint.”
In fiscal 1998 the commission completed 343 investigations and accepted 482 cases, according to Booth.
Employers with questions about conducting interviews can contact the commission to obtain a copy of its guidelines. “Employers should know their rights and responsibilities under the law, because they have rights too,” he said.
