Recruiter and Applicant Accountability

 

Statements by Employers

Recruitment includes attempts to persuade candidates to accept a job offer: a wooing process. Promises concerning promotions, pay increases or working conditions can provide a basis for legal action involving misrepresentation, breach of contract (implicit, implied or written), and civil fraud.

Fraud requires that a person has been persuaded to accept a position based on misrepresentations such as promises of compensation, payment of moving expenses or real estate commissions and anything that would induce an applicant to accept an offer and end their association with another employer.

Statements by Employees

Embellishments and resumes are symbiotic. Few downplay their qualifications when seeking work. The situation differs when applicants falsify their qualifications or omit material information.

Courts rarely make findings of discrimination when an employer has a consistently enforced policy of disqualifying applicants who fabricate or omit material information and provide notice – usually on the application form.

Employers that discover a falsification or omission subsequent to hiring will generally be able to defend against any claim of discrimination so long as they have a consistently enforced policy requiring applicants to provide complete and truthful information. Falsifications and omissions must involve material matters. Trivialities such as slight variations in dates will not provide a defense when actions alleging discrimination have been filed.