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about US job interviews |
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Question:
I was once told that it is illegal for an employer at an interview to inquire
about marital status. Does this also apply to nationality or health-related issues? My wife Emma picked
up an application and got a second interview and no one asked her where she was
from which I found odd because everyone asks her if she is from Australia. She has also had back problems, could they ask about that?
Answer:
Employers may do an initial interview, but if they get
a whif of something they have a question about, they won't go to the
interviewing prospect to get at that information (this is especially
true in a small town), but instead will "ask around" to others who may
know that individual or who may know someone in his family.
They
usually find out enough to help them decide, and in the end may actually
practice discrimination without anyone knowing anything about it. For
instance, take a person with a workers' comp injury: he has had back
surgery from a worker's comp injury at a previous employer, but
interviews for a job that requires lifting 25 pounds occasionally.
The
potential employer can't ask anything about that injury (in fact have no
knowledge of it), BUT they can ask others who may know him if he's ever
had any kind of problems, even may be able to check the state's worker's
comp claims if they are registered in a central location, so in the end
they have a pretty good chance of knowing about the back injury before
any offer for employment is made, and indeed may not offer the job to
him due to the previous back injury, even though it was never mentioned
in the interview.
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