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Lesson 03: Legal Aspects of Recruiting, Hiring, and Promotion

L03 Employment Agencies

Employment agencies are covered by antidiscrimination laws and are expressly prohibited from advertising for positions or making referrals in a discriminatory manner. It is naïve to hold that some customers served by employment agencies will not make preferences known or that none will accede to those demands. It is nonetheless illegal per the EEOC:

Employers must not request that employment agencies refer only employees with particular protected class characteristics, nor should they attempt to obtain through employment agencies information about protected class characteristics that it would be improper for them to obtain directly. (42 U.S.C.S. 2000e-2-(b) 2017)

EEOC enforcement cases against employment agencies have involved code terms for applicants over 40 and refusals to consider African American applicants. Foreign-based companies can limit certain executive positions to their own ethnicities per international trade agreements, but they cannot discriminate when filling other positions.

Aside from those limited exceptions, employment agencies cannot defend against discriminatory practices based on the preferences of their customers. Nor can agencies lawfully serve as filters for applicants based on discriminatory preferences. One discriminatory practice is nepotism, let’s look at that in the next section.

 


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