3 ms·

Just curious, but do those lawsuits revolve around the race/color of the candidate?

steven777400 14y ago
I don't know. We have a very diverse work force so it seems like proving discrimination would be a serious up-hill battle for a candidate. As a mentioned in another reply, I suspect this is more of a CYA from HR rather than a legitimate necessity.
speeder 14y ago
I live in Brazil. Here this is extremely common, also when you fire people. So, if you have insider info, you know that: First, if people suspect you are black, homosexual or a women from your resume, they don't interview you in first place. If you DO get to the interview, then it switches, they hire you even if there are better candidates. This is not so strong, the real problem comes in the firing. If a company has 20 engineers, and need to fire 3 to reduce costs, they will fire straight white males first, because if they sue for discrimination, the company can easily defend itself (what sane judge would believe that you got fired for being white, straight or male?). If they REALLY need to fire a black/gay/woman/whatever then they do a mass firing (like, say they are closing the department), and hire back the employees they want. And most important of all, they do everything they can to make employees don't know about this, because when they do, tensions quickly build up, with white straight males sabotaging or acting passive agressive toward everyone else as a sort of perceived self defense (since they don't want to be fired unfairly). All of this also apply to disabled persons too, in Brazil your company is obliged to hire 3% of disabled persons if you have more than 2000 employees. Several callcenters operate with 1999 or they comply with the laws by firing abled persons and hiring disabled until they have 3% of disabled so they can hire able persons again (ie: if you have 1999 employees and zero disabled, start firing abled people and replacing them with disabled until you are sure that when reaching 2000 you have 3% of ables). Again, this create some crazy tensions, with disabled employees getting sabotaged or attacked passively by other employees, that upfront all of them praise the company for being pro-diversity, but behind everyone back want to just keep their jobs.
- tferraz 14y ago
  I've never seen such a thing...I also wonder if litigation is high here..the tech community is small, and as the tech community the hr people changes jobs as we do to other tech companies...thus what I see is that people avoid to sue their former employers...
  - speeder 14y ago
    Brazil has more law schools than the rest of the world summed ( http://guiadoestudante.abril.com.br/vestibular-enem/brasil-tem-mais-cursos-direito-todo-mundo-603836.shtml http://guiadoestudante.abril.com.br/vestibular-enem/brasil-t... ) it is no wonder that litigation here is very high.
- tferraz 14y ago
  also, is really hard to prove discrimination.
- jiggy2011 14y ago
  I imagine that such a thing might actually incentivise the company to hire white males because they know they can fire them more easily.

I don't know. We have a very diverse work force so it seems like proving discrimination would be a serious up-hill battle for a candidate. As a mentioned in another reply, I suspect this is more of a CYA from HR rather than a legitimate necessity.

speeder 14y ago

I live in Brazil. Here this is extremely common, also when you fire people. So, if you have insider info, you know that: First, if people suspect you are black, homosexual or a women from your resume, they don't interview you in first place. If you DO get to the interview, then it switches, they hire you even if there are better candidates. This is not so strong, the real problem comes in the firing. If a company has 20 engineers, and need to fire 3 to reduce costs, they will fire straight white males first, because if they sue for discrimination, the company can easily defend itself (what sane judge would believe that you got fired for being white, straight or male?). If they REALLY need to fire a black/gay/woman/whatever then they do a mass firing (like, say they are closing the department), and hire back the employees they want. And most important of all, they do everything they can to make employees don't know about this, because when they do, tensions quickly build up, with white straight males sabotaging or acting passive agressive toward everyone else as a sort of perceived self defense (since they don't want to be fired unfairly). All of this also apply to disabled persons too, in Brazil your company is obliged to hire 3% of disabled persons if you have more than 2000 employees. Several callcenters operate with 1999 or they comply with the laws by firing abled persons and hiring disabled until they have 3% of disabled so they can hire able persons again (ie: if you have 1999 employees and zero disabled, start firing abled people and replacing them with disabled until you are sure that when reaching 2000 you have 3% of ables). Again, this create some crazy tensions, with disabled employees getting sabotaged or attacked passively by other employees, that upfront all of them praise the company for being pro-diversity, but behind everyone back want to just keep their jobs.

tferraz 14y ago
I've never seen such a thing...I also wonder if litigation is high here..the tech community is small, and as the tech community the hr people changes jobs as we do to other tech companies...thus what I see is that people avoid to sue their former employers...
- speeder 14y ago
  Brazil has more law schools than the rest of the world summed ( http://guiadoestudante.abril.com.br/vestibular-enem/brasil-tem-mais-cursos-direito-todo-mundo-603836.shtml http://guiadoestudante.abril.com.br/vestibular-enem/brasil-t... ) it is no wonder that litigation here is very high.
tferraz 14y ago
also, is really hard to prove discrimination.
jiggy2011 14y ago
I imagine that such a thing might actually incentivise the company to hire white males because they know they can fire them more easily.