{"id":396,"date":"2014-11-23T10:26:33","date_gmt":"2014-11-23T18:26:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/verbalrights.com\/?page_id=396"},"modified":"2019-04-09T13:09:51","modified_gmt":"2019-04-09T20:09:51","slug":"equal-employment-opportunity-in-danger-of-extinction","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/verbalrights.com\/?page_id=396","title":{"rendered":"Eroding Equal Employment Opportunity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eroding Equal Employment Opportunity<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Dean L. Jones<\/p>\n

Executing affirmative action for a job placement is negatively trending toward posting language preferences on job descriptions, thereby enabling a seemingly professional method of circumventing equal opportunity hiring laws.\u00a0 An obvious violator are business managers who unscrupulously acquire a two-in-one job applicant without paying for a translator or extending a pay differential for the additional language skill, mainly those with English\/Spanish speaking skills.<\/p>\n

Another unscrupulous violator are those enterprises that seek out foreign born job applicants.\u00a0 The countless losers are the natural Americans excluded from job opportunities due in part to this habitually deceptive and repeatedly unlawful bilingual language hiring practice.<\/p>\n

An under-the-table practice in staffing is currently excluding black males in the office space that results from an unspoken reputation that such individuals are potential trouble makers in the general workplace.\u00a0 This false belief is especially held close to the vest in contrast to selecting Spanish-speaking workers, who often times are foreign born job candidates and are considered a more reliable hard worker — since they are considered vulnerable to the threat of deportation.<\/p>\n

Consequently, the act of inserting the illicit phrase that pays\u2015Bilingual required\u2015somehow is an accepted normal staffing practice.\u00a0 After all, the common misconception is that when blacks were in the driver’s seat following the passing of the Civil Rights Act sixty years ago, there existed an ample opportunity to hire blacks into social service jobs, i.e. Post Office, Department of Public Social Services, State Unemployment Departments, Department of Motor Vehicles, Foster Care Services, Department of Family and Children Services, and the like.<\/p>\n

The following are examples taken from real job descriptions used in the Los Angeles California region to gain access for bilingual English and Spanish speaking job candidates.\u00a0 A significant delivery system of this deceptive practice is to use the government agencies that are now called WorkSource Centers to build ‘homogenous’ work places.\u00a0 The job developers working in these governmentally funded agencies are often desperate to place candidates and are operating with zero level care of whether the employer practices fair equal opportunity hiring policies or not.\u00a0 The tax dollars awarded these low- to moderate-skilled job placement centers are so busy trying to justify staying in business that meeting placement numbers each quarter is the most critical action pursued by the work-source center employees.\u00a0 Hence, the mere fact that employers are wanting to keep a homogenous Spanish speaking employment staff has become inconsequential to exclude the core of natural American job seekers from wage opportunities.<\/p>\n

For the most part, the choice insert for a job description is “Bilingual Spanish [is] a Plus”<\/em> and it is customary to place at the bottom of the official written announcement ‘We are an Equal Opportunity Employer.’\u00a0 The idea is not to tarnish the organization’s brand as a fair employer.<\/p>\n

For general job openings a light approach is used anywhere in the announcement, outside of the core requirements, to express “Bilingual English and Spanish highly encouraged.”<\/em>\u00a0 “Bi-lingual in a community-based language is a plus,”<\/em>\u00a0or my favorite is one that says Bilingual is non-essential and\u00a0not required, but preferred.<\/em> \u00a0A shoe-in for hiring foreign born workers is to recruit for Bilingual Spanish [or Must be Bi-lingual (Spanish)] speaking ‘Call Center Representatives.’\u00a0 After hiring the people, employers reassign new hires to other positions that may not have a necessity for applying a multi-language skill.<\/p>\n

According to employment law a bona fide occupational qualification<\/strong> (BFOQ) is appropriate if the nature of the job could not be done without a particular skill such as speaking Spanish.\u00a0 Even though the general language for California is English, job announcements are frequently written with skill requirements that\u00a0discriminate against those applicants who cannot speak or write Spanish.\u00a0 That goes back to using the Worksource Center representatives who do not care about that fact that ‘English is the common language of the people of the United States of America and the State of California.\u00a0 To preserve, protect and strengthen the English language and not to supersede any of the rights guaranteed to the people by the State\u2019s Constitution, English is the Official Language of the State of California.’<\/em><\/p>\n

A large number of\u00a0industries employ the practice of getting a full and part-time homogenous workforce, even the airline industry have been known to attract passenger service agents (ticket agent) and fleet service clerks (cargo handler) by phrasing the job announcements with the fact that all candidates “Must<\/strong> be fluent in English and Spanish.”<\/em><\/p>\n

By emphasizing that candidates “Must speak English\/Spanish”<\/em> is highly used for recruiting Caregivers, Nannies, Housekeepers, Call Center Representatives.\u00a0 No one seems to question if the client can only speak Spanish since there are so many foreign born people living in the Los Angeles region.<\/p>\n

AT&T outsources a lot of its work to subcontractors that eliminates the high cost of benefits and worker’s compensation in California, so whenever they are ramping up for Customer Service\/Sales they use the phrase “All Languages are Welcome\u2015Bilingual is a Plus.”<\/em>\u00a0 \u00a0By using this open phrase, sky’s the limit on who can be hired and excluded.<\/p>\n

Apparently, those who write job description are attempting to use a sophisticated approach by creating a language portion of the job announcement.\u00a0 This scares off many applicants when they see language restrictions because chances are they cannot speak English well, less alone have knowledge of speaking a second language. \u00a0Many job descriptions place the phrase right after the ‘Qualifications’ section and plug in “Language Skills: Bilingual in Spanish.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Another seemingly subtle statement is writing “Other preferred attributes: Fluency in Spanish language highly preferred.”<\/em>\u00a0 Again, employers always include\u2015An Equal Opportunity Employer\u2015statement and the latest is to add “Reasonable Accommodations Available Upon Request.”<\/p>\n

Small businesses specializing in authentic Mexican Cuisine looking to expand commonly recruit using “Minimal Requirements Bilingual\/English & Spanish.”<\/em> \u00a0This occurs without repercussions of any type, as the current American society routinely expects and fully accepts this one-sided hiring practice, especially if the food is good.<\/p>\n

The older phrase that is now becoming obsolete is in the shipping and receiving clerk recruitment using “Bilingual Spanish\/English a must.”\u00a0 <\/em>Some scrutiny has come about for any light industrial warehouse, assembly and production skilled jobs because these are often union related positions.\u00a0 Here is where employers can be considered as crossing the discrimination line, likewise it is caught when hiring personnel ask candidates if they have “Reliable Transportation and that they Must Be Bilingual Spanish.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Nonetheless, the Food Industry in Los Angeles, CA accepts the foreign language whole heartedly and businesses seeking bilingual Account Managers have opened the door wide for bilingual or multilingual languages from Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Korean, Taiwanese, to Spanish.\u00a0 The secret appears to emphasize that the candidate in addition to speaking a foreign language “Must also be fluent in English”<\/em> with strong communication skills and presentation skills.<\/p>\n

Another job that has large reasons for hiring a Spanish speaking person is the Case Manager position.\u00a0 The qualifications’ section makes reference to possessing a bachelor degree in social work or related field strongly preferred, plus two years experience providing case management services and that “Bilingual English\/Spanish is required.”\u00a0 <\/em>Sometimes strategically placed at the bottom of the announcement calls for; “Notes\u2015Preferred Qualifications: Possess a college degree, credential, or vocational training; Experience in case management and\/or goal planning; Experience in conducting individual or group mentoring or a history of receiving mentoring services; Bilingual English\/Spanish.”\u00a0 <\/em>Additionally, excellent communication and organizational skills; strong written and interpersonal skills is a great closer.<\/p>\n

For the really large recruitments it seems to pay off making bold statements like “100 Bilingual Food Handler Positions Available.”\u00a0 Then an even bolder statement more specific wording “Bilingual and\/or Monolingual Spanish<\/em>” for a Burrito Manufacturing Company. \u00a0This may seem quite stereotypic, but the low- to moderate-skilled job placement industry is using these tactics daily in the Los Angeles region. \u00a0Professional staffing agencies are doing dirty work by writing job announcements in Spanish language with English in smaller print at the bottom, for example;<\/p>\n

Empacadoras para turno de noche<\/em><\/p>\n