Last night’s 60 Minutes was about folks who are deemed “long-term unemployed” and now considered unemployable. I thought it was interesting because although they talked about the want-ads with “must be currently employed to apply” they didn’t say anything about states working to prohibit that level of discrimination. I did a “Google search”and it turns out over 100,000 folks signed a petition asking Monster.com to stop posting job ads that support the discrimination practice (http://www.change.org/petitions/monstercom-ban-job-listings-that-discriminate-against-the-unemployed). It also turns out that with the passage of our HB12-1134 Colorado will be setting a precedent in model legislation along this effort. YAY—we’re in first place for something that benefits working families.
Apparently, Congress and California have been grappling with this a bit, but it’s still at conversation stage. More on that from National Employment Law Project.
My thought is that if you are working with folks who fall in this category, Representative Pabon could use their testimony. Unfortunately the first hearing is February 21st but if you send him an email (Dan@DanPabon.com) that he can read to the committee that would be welcome. I don’t know who has the lead on this bill, but it’s something worth fighting for if we expect to make a difference for some of the people we serve.
Bill HB12-1134 - PABON Prohibit Job Discrimination Against Unemployed
Tuesday, February 21 2012
Economic & Business Development
1:30 p.m. Room 0112
(2) in house calendar.
I wanted to express my thanks for writing this blog post. HB-1134 was an important bill that the was shot down during the legislative committee hearing held on Feb 21.
ReplyDeleteThe bill was killed along party lines; as usual, the GOP was more interested in protecting the 'first amendment rights' of the business/corporate CEOs than they are about the rights of (formerly middle class) American workers' pursuit of 'life, liberty & happiness' which, by any American standard, includes the ability to support yourself and your family financially, not to mention obtain and have access to healthcare, etc.
I testified at this hearing and was involved in writing the Change.org petition asking Monster.com to stop accepting discriminatory job ads - and couldn't be more passionate about this issue which continues to plague millions of 'very-long term unemployed' [aka '99ers'] who have exhausted all UI benefits, still can't find work and have absolutely no 'safety-net' with which they can contribute to their own existence financially in any meaningful or substanitive manner).
Kelly Wiedemer
Denver Unemployment Examiner