Will Obama's Jobs Bill Make Jobs For Trial Lawyers?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/deborahljacobs/2011/09/16/will-obamas-jobs-bill-make-jobs-for-trial-lawyers/

A provision in the jobs bill that President Obama sent to Congress this week makes it illegal for companies and employment agencies to discriminate against unemployed candidates who apply for work. Businesses can’t run ads saying they won’t consider unemployed workers, and they can’t refuse to consider or hire people because they are out of work. A job-seeker who has been discriminated against on these grounds can sue for damages.

But before bashing the jobs bill, let’s take a sober look at the facts. This provision in the law grows out of real life experience. Even companies that aren’t discriminating against the long-term unemployed are stacking the deck against them. One example: There’s an ad right now on the Amazon.com website recruiting workers for the Lexington County, SC warehouse. Basic qualifications include that you have to be able to lift up to 50 pounds, and be on your feet for up to 12 hours a day. Then there’s a list of what are called “preferred qualifications.” The most important one is: “no extended gaps in employment.”

This discourages people who’ve been out of work for any length of time from even applying. It also leaves them wondering what’s “preferred” and what’s an “extended gap?” To one person it might be six months. To another it might be two years.The jobs bill should put a stop to that kind of an ad. But hair splitters could argue the Amazon ad fits through a loophole in the proposed law; it only prohibits language “stating or indicating” that unemployment “disqualifies someone for an opportunity.” In the Amazon ad, there’s room for interpretation.It will be interesting to see how all this plays out.