I wrote about the president's new massive government spending proposal, misnamed as a job's bill,
a couple of weeks ago. Now we find that it includes an idea that would encourage frivolous lawsuits against employers.
Mr. Obama’s jobs bill would prohibit employers from discriminating against job applicants because they are unemployed.
Under the proposal, it would be “an unlawful employment practice” if a business with 15 or more employees refused to hire a person “because of the individual’s status as unemployed.”
Unsuccessful job applicants could sue and recover damages for violations, just as when an employer discriminates on the basis of a person’s race, color, religion, sex or national origin.
Naturally this idea also involves giving more power to the government to scrutinize business hiring practices.
Under Mr. Obama’s proposal, the employment commission would be given new power to enforce the proposed ban on discrimination against the jobless.
What a great idea. If unemployed people fail to get a particular job, why not give them the ability to allege that they were discriminated against because they are unemployed? I'm sure greater government involvement and the threat of lawsuits if they turn someone down will do wonders to make businesses more interested in hiring instead of just deciding to do without that extra worker. Businesses love attention from government agencies and the threat of lawsuits.
I think Obama is trying to feed his base as much as possible. It strikes me that suing a company and winning on this point is very difficult. At most it will prevent businesses from saying "Unemployed need not apply" in their ads.
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