Say you are asked a series of questions during a job interview that leads you to suspect the employer is engaging in discriminatory hiring practices. Lucky for you, it seems they are discriminatory in your favor and you get offered the job.
If you accept the job do you have any standing to file a complaint of some kind with eth EEOC? Do you need damages? What if you turn the offer down because of those questions? Can that somehow be legally construed as damages to you?
You don’t have to explain to me that accepting a job and then suing your new employers is generally a bad idea. I’m just asking about the legal, not the practical, possibilities.
In the inspiring thread I was referring to the “Whistleblower” law that say’s a company can’t retaliate against an employee for reporting what he/she see’s as an illegal activity. You needn’t be a victim of the crime to report it.
I honestly feel that trublmakr, or anyone else who has good reason to suspect illegal activity should report it. And be held in high esteem for doing so.
Peace,
mangeorge
In general I don’t think you can bring a civil suit for damages unless you can show that you have suffered damage.
I suppose if it became generally known that you had been selected for the job on illegal discriminatory criteria you could argue that your reputation had suffered. But if you’re the only person who knows the basis for the appointment, and you have in fact got the job, where’s your damage?
You could report the matter to the relevant government agency charged with enforcing equality legislation (assuming there is one) and they could take action. But it’s hard to see how you could take action successfully yourself without some additional facts to show loss on your part.
Since you are not the victim of the discriminatory practice, you have no case. The best you can probably do to clue in the EEOC to such practices if they appear to be ongoing.
Then again, the person who was discriminated against might file with the same EEOC office as you voluntarily reported such practices to them, this giving them additional evidence to support the case. Upon settlement, you might find yourself out of the very job where you hired as a result of the discrimination. Of course, at that point if your now former employer had a union contract, yoyu would probably file against the dismissal as an unfair labor practice …
You do need to show that you suffered some form of specific damages. Of course that can sometimes be considered broadly.
If, to use one of your examples, you turned down a favorable job offer because you were asked discriminatory questions (even though you weren’t subject to the discrimination) you might have a case. You could argue that because the company was dicriminatory overall you felt obliged to turn down a lucrative job offer because you didn’t want to work for it. In this case, the company’s illegal actions of conducting discriminatory interviews did cause you harm.
If, on the other hand, you accepted the job, your case is going to have to be much more creative. First, you’re going to have to figure out a way to claim the company’s discriminatory action harmed you if it didn’t deny you a job. Second, you’re going to have to show that even though you received a good paying job, the damage you received was so severe it went beyond the amount of your salary. Third, you’re going to have to overcome the fact that you voluntarily chose to accept the job and thereby presumedly agreed to the circumstances of your employment. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but your lawyers are going to earn their money on this one.
