H.R. 2501 ("The Fair Employment Opportunity Act of 2011"), if passed through the House and Senate and signed into law by the President, would prohibit all employment agencies and employers with 15 or more employees from discriminating against unemployed candidates on the basis of their unemployed status. In particular, under the existing terms of the bill, employers and employment agencies would be barred from publishing job postings that indicate that unemployed individuals will be automatically disqualified from consideration. In addition, employers would be prohibited from requesting that recruiting agencies exclude unemployed candidates during the hiring process. The author of The New York Times' June 26, 2011 editorial on this topic believes that this bill should be passed as a measure to help the jobless re-enter the workforce. See http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/26/opinion/26tue3.html.
While the objective behind this proposed legislation is admirable, it is likely that the long-term unemployed would still be discriminated against if H.R. 2501 is eventually signed into law. Employers would still have the right to eliminate a candidate based on his or her poor credit score or the fact that the candidate's skill-set had atrophied during the period of unemployment.
It is absolutely ridiculous that this House Resolution has been proposed. How much of our tax payer dollars has been and will be spent discussing this issue. This is the DUMBEST proposed law I have seen in years. So now all the government will be achieving is completely backlogging the EEOC with complaints from every single unemployed person who was denied employment. Afterall, far be it from an employer to deny employment to a completely unqualified applicant. How about employment at will states, in which the employer can hire and fire for any reason just not a discriminatory reason. We are basically becoming a - the government is holding a gun to your head country and forcing you to hire any joe shmoe who walks in off the street or face the wrath of the understaff EEOC which cannot even handle the legit claims in their offices (along with all the bogus claims of disgruntled ex-employees).
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