Law: Companies Using Internet Job Applicants Must Comply With New Rules

This stuff just boils me when I think how easy it could be to be moving along, minding your own business, and be violating rules like these that you had no idea were in existence……

Why doesn’t the government just take it to the next level where employees must be selected from the applicant pool based on a random lottery, and the number of tickets each applicant gets are based on points for having qualifying genders, races, disabilities, alleged past discriminations, number of successfully prosecuted actions for complaints against other employers, number of times whistle blown to government agencies, etc. Perhaps things like gender, race, etc., could be multipliers, to discourage any chance of a white guy complaining enough to overcome the odds against him. Oh yeah, and special triple-des one way encryptioned identifiers would hide each applicants lottery multiplier, final selection of the applicant to be done by submitting the list of applicants for the job, along with their triple des government issued keys, to a special applicant selection service which would return the supposedly randomly selected applicant for the job. Make it like the www.[UtahKidsRegistry]Create?.com protection system. Maybe an attorney could help me set it up, then he could get me publicity by helping to sue me over it….

I could have a real future as the designer of a petty bureaucracy….. Could design this as a service, and then get some state legislature to demand that all businesses have to buy our service.

More info:

http://www.dol.gov/esa/ofccp/ - Search for “internet application” http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/compliance/ofccp/faqs/iappfaqs.htm - Internet applicant recordkeeping rule faq http://www.dol.gov/esa/regs/fedreg/final/2005020176.htm - The actual publishing of the rule http://www.dol.gov/esa/ofccp/Presentation/Applicant%20Rule%20Presentation_files/frame.htm#slide0001.htm

Slide 36 is nice: OFCCP will rely on census and other labor market data to assess a contractor’s hiring practices for potential discrimination and will carefully review the basic qualifications themselves.  OFCCP’s compliance evaluations will not be limited to an evaluation of those records produced by the contractor. OFCCP will look broadly at all aspects of a contractor’s compliance with its nondiscrimination obligations, including the possible adverse impact of screens for basic qualifications.

In other words: Contractor will keep copious records available for inspection at any time by this agency, for comparision with any kind of unspecified voodoo data we can come up with that will allow us to easily make a case against you from your own data and shake you down for some kind of violation of our rules.

 	Noncomparative features of a job seeker (e.g. three years' experience in a particular position, rather than a comparative requirements such as being one of the top five among the candidates in years of experience); “

Friends, those of you who recall a discussion in my column last December about companies that recruit people to work from home. I'd be remiss not to mention one more of these that recently came to my attention: A staffing service called Double-Click (www.teamdoubleclick.com), which has been matching employers with home-based office assistants since 2002. Founder and president Gayle Buske started this when, as a graphic designer looking for three or four part-timers to help her start a new magazine, she placed an ad online and got 500 applicants. Double-Click provides real estate, marketing, and web design firms with "virtual assistants" -- just like a traditional temp agency, but all online. If you're seeking a home-based "office" job, check it out!