Legal Question in Employment Law in New Jersey
age discrimination in the hiring process
I ama 57 y.o. management professional, out of work for months due to the economic downturn, and actively seeking employment, utilizing many of the popular online application and screening mechanisms in use today by prospective employers. My peers and I have noticed that not only with these automated application facilities, but also in phone or face to face interviews, age related questions are posed that have nothing to do with job role and responsibility. Questions like ''college graduation date'' or ''ages of children'' are posed. Such poorly disguised questions are intented to determine age of the applicant and candidates are forced to answer or the process comes to an abrupt halt. How can this be legal under EEO? My peers and I have numerous examples of this occuring. It appears that the ''age / mature worker'' class is not being adequately protected like the other groups, which have the option of *not* having to answer questions about race, creed, sexual orientation, etc. Why is the mature worker class treated differently? How can EEO law be applied differently to one group over another? What recourse is there for individuals like me? Are there any advocacy groups addressing this apparently rampant issue??
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: age discrimination in the hiring process
Age discrimination is a pervasive problem in this economy. Employers are no longer even being subtle in their questions, instead obviously looking for indicators of the applicant's age. If you have specific examples where you met the posted position criteria, yet were required to provide information that was not qualification related but could or did indicate your age, please give me a call. Whether a job is posted in a newspaper, with an on-line organization like CareerBuilder, or on a company's web site, the same rules apply.
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