The Next Protected Class - Ex-cons
Posted
5:11 PM
by Michael Fox
The EEOC last year issued some updated guidance on Consideration of Arrest and Conviction Records in Employment Decisions Under Title VII. It laid out a blue print for how to plead a case under Title VII using the disparate impact theory of discrimination. Although not as common as disparate treatment cases, disparate impact cases tend to have much broader application because one of the requirements is a business practice that is applied uniformly with a disparate impact on a protected category.
Waldon v. Cincinnati Public Schools (S.D. Ohio, 4.24.13) may not be the first case, but it is the first one I have seen where a plaintiff has followed the EEOC's invitation and at least gotten through an initial motion to dismiss.
As on all employment law issues that arise in Ohio, Jon Hyman has a good look at the case here, focusing on the dilemma where an employer has a federal mandate and state statute (in this case H.B. 190) that appear to conflict.
His prediction (or at least hope) is that following state law will meet the exculpatory requirement of business necessity. Maybe Waldon will give us the answer as it progresses, but it is clear that until that issue is definitively resolved there are going to be a number of employers facing tough choices.
But there are many employers who may find themselves having to defend similar actions without even the argument that they are protected by a need to comply with state law. Projecting hot areas of litigation is risky business, but if I had to bet, this is one area I would certainly be looking at.
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