Both the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) have noted that the equal employment opportunity (EEO) laws they respectively enforce prohibit the use of pre-hire inquiries (including job applications) that screen out members based on protected status when the questions are not justified by some business purpose.
Thus, information obtained through pre-employment inquiries and on job applications should be aimed solely at determining qualifications. Inquiries that reveal information bearing no relationship to the qualifications for the job sought (for instance, year of graduation from high school, childcare arrangements, country of origin and the like) should be avoided. If such protected information is provided by an applicant who is not selected for a particular position, the applicant may, for instance, allege a claim of age, sex or national origin discrimination. Similarly, information about an applicant’s marital status, family background, race, religion and any other protected class status should not be sought at any point during the advertising, screening or interviewing process.
Given recent publicity regarding the employment of illegal aliens or others who...
Please call us at (312) 960-9400 if this is an error or if you have any questions.