THE DEADWILEY TRUTH
OP-ED
COLUMN
By
Eric M. Deadwiley
The EEOC Is Enforcing The Law. Finally!
It only took “decades” of rampant poverty in Black and Brown communities and literally “millions” of otherwise qualified job applicants with criminal convictions on their public records to be denied an honest 9 to 5, for the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission to finally enforce a law that has been on the books for over 4 decades.
The
EEOC announced on Tuesday that it is filing federal civil rights suits on BMW
and Dollar General Corp for what they claim are violations of Title VII of the
Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibit employment discrimination based on
race, creed, religion, sex etc… BMW apparently held a “blanket” no-hire policy
for people with any form of criminal conviction on their records. However, BMW
hired a sub-contractor UTI Integrated Logistics Inc., who only
considered criminal convictions that were within the past 6 or 7 years. The
EEOC encourages employers to set time limits on most criminal convictions for
employers to avoid denying an applicant employment for what could be an outdated
and oftentimes irrelevant conviction to the job being sought. UTI’s policy
complied with the EEOC’s guidelines. BMW parted ways with UTI and brought in a
new logistics contractor who did not follow the EEOC’s guidelines, but followed
BMW’s policy and required all of BMW’s current employees to reapply for the
jobs they already occupied.
"Some states
require employers to wait until late in the selection process to ask about convictions.
The policy rationale is that an employer is more likely to objectively assess
the relevance of an applicant’s conviction if it becomes known when the
employer is already knowledgeable about the applicant’s qualifications and
experience. As a best practice, and consistent with applicable laws, the
Commission recommends that employers not ask about convictions on job applications
and that, if and when they make such inquiries, the inquiries be limited to
convictions for which exclusion would be job related for the position in
question and consistent with business necessity."
The
EEOC has also clarified their policy position–that the exclusion by employers
of all people with criminal records has a “disparate impact” on Blacks and
violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Employers can also be in
violation of the statute for using criminal convictions that are deemed to be “unrelated”
to the job being sort and not consistent with business necessity, which is one
of the cases filed against Dollar General Corp. A Black female was offered a
position even though she disclosed that she had a 6 year old drug possession conviction.
Not only is the drug possession conviction not in any way connected to the job
the applicant was seeking, but for Dollar General Corp to have a blanket policy
against anyone with a drug possession convictions would have a disparate impact
on Black applicants since Blacks are “targeted,” “arrested,” “prosecuted,” “convicted” and “incarcerated” at much higher rates than
other ethnic groups in this country. This is also in the face of “staggering”
reports that Whites sell and use more illegal drugs than Blacks.
The
EEOC is also encouraging employers to “Ban the Box” on their job applications,
which is to remove the question: “have you ever been convicted of a crime?”
from job applications, reserve the question until the “end” of the hiring
process and limit the inquiry to those crimes where exclusion would be
warranted because of business necessity. For example, it would be reasonable for a Bank
to deny employment to a convicted Robber, a Pharmacy to deny employment to a
convicted drug dealer or a Day Care Center to deny employment to a Child
Molester. Yet, it would “not” be reasonable for a Bank to deny an applicant
employment based on a 10 year old Marijuana possession case, a Pharmacy for a
ten year old car theft case or a Day Care Center for a 15 year old Trespassing
case. The State of Minnesota is the
latest state to ban the box on public and private job applications. Other
states, cities and municipalities that have banned the box are: (1) Austin, TX; (2) Chicago, IL; (3)
Connecticut; (4) Detroit, MI; (5) Durham, NC; (6) Hawaii; (7) Jacksonville, FL;
(8) Maryland; (9) Massachusetts; (10) Memphis, TN; (11) Minneapolis; (12) New Mexico; (13)Newark, NJ; (14)
Philadelphia, PA (15) Providence, RI; (16) San Francisco, CA; (17) San Jose,
CA; (18) Seattle, WA and (19) Oakland, CA. The states of New York and New
Jersey are considering similar Bills in their legislatures. If this is the “NEW”
and “IMPROVED” EEOC, then I like it. This is what America needs to get our
economy back on track for the middle class.
Eric M. Deadwiley is a Freelance Op-Ed
Columnist, Investigative Reporter and Author
Contact: Eric
M. Deadwiley
