Age Discrimination

Rose

The US EEOC is suggesting that an employment application that requests dates of service in the Military and dates of attendance at educational institutions as a violation of the Age Discrimination Employment Act. It is suggested this information could have an adverse impact on applicants within the protected age group of 40 years or older..... This is news to me. Has anyone else been involved with such a complaint?

Don D

Both items on your application no doubt elicit information that could tend to identify applicant age and that's the point the EEOC was making. On the other hand, if you're a federal contractor or provide services to one, you may have the obligation to maintain a formal affirmative action plan and you will need such information, for example, to identify Vietnam era vets. And if you have ever called educational institutions to verify education, the first thing they ask is dates of attendance. It's another damned if you do and damned if you don't situation. We've revised our app to ask: military veteran, yes or no and if so, can you provide a copy of your DD214 to verify service if needed in the post-offer history verification process? Or you might want to add a disclaimer comment or two, such as: This information may be needed to verify military service or education and will not be used to discriminate against any applicant in any manner inconsistent with employment laws or regulations. As a side note, when I worked for the State, we had an EEO Officer who each year in his office evaluation would chide us for not knowing where our employees attended college. He said that was one way we could ensure equitable promotional and training opportunities for those who attended historically one-race colleges. I told him every year that we do not gather such information as it would tend to identify race in the application process. To which he would answer, you should have it on the application. To which we would answer, "You won't let us use that question in the application/interview process".

Gillian

Dates of attendance tend to indicate age, especially high school, and are best left off applications. If one knew the year that I graduated, yikes!