Job Discrimination

[lionesswood]

My fiance is a 41 year old Caucasian man who lives in Arkansas. He has worked full-time on weekdays at the same grocery store for several years. He is needing to make some extra money working evenings & weekends to pay off his medical & credit card debts. The problem is that he has searched for almost 2 years trying to find a second job, & has not been able to get one. He is very well-qualified for the jobs that he has applied for, & does not understand why he has not been hired. He feels that the employers have discriminated against him for some reason. There have been 2 recent incidents where this has happened. A few months ago, he applied for a job at a fast-food restaurant down the street from where he lives. An African-American man interviewed him, & told my fiance that the head manager would have to give the final approval, but that he was sure my fiance had the job. The interviewer told him that they would call him to let him know when to report to work. I was a witness to what this man told my fiance. Days passed & nobody from this fast-food restaurant ever called him. After 2 or 3 weeks went by without receiving a call, my fiance gave up on ever getting hired at this fast-food place. More recently (this month, in fact!), my fiance applied for a job at a large chain movie theater which is also located close to where he lives. The last contact that he had with this theater was on the evening of 4/14/05. He went to a group orientation at the theater that lasted about 3 hours. I was not with him this time, but when I picked him up, he had with him a shirt, visor cap, & nametag, all of which were bearing the name of this theater. He still has those items. Once again, he told me that the theater would call him to let him know when to report to work. As you might guess, 10 days have gone by & they have not called him. This time, instead of just giving up, he is getting angry. This is a job that he really wanted. When he first talked to a manager at this theater, they told him that after a few months, he could move up to become a projectionist or the evening manager, both of which pay more money. My fiance is really angry & puzzled about why this theater has not called him yet. The only things that he could think of that they could possibly discriminate against him about are his AGE & APPEARANCE. He wonders if this theater thinks that 41 is "too old." My fiance thinks that his age is an asset, because he has had several years of positive work experience to prove his maturity, reliability, responsibility, & dedication to his job. He thinks that he would be a better candidate for a job than a lot of teenagers who just want to collect a paycheck & who do not care whether a job gets done or not. As for his appearance, he is a tall, slightly chubby man whose upper front teeth are broken. This happened when he was injured in a bad car accident several years ago (before I met him)
& he has not had enough money to be able to get them fixed. He has been told by a couple of dentists that he will need several thousand dollars worth of cosmetic surgery to restore his teeth to the way they looked before the accident. He is very sensitive about his appearance, & he & I both DO NOT THINK IT IS FAIR if these jobs are discriminating against him because of the way that he looks. The only jobs that we can think of that are truly based on appearance are jobs in the field of Entertainment & Modeling. We don't think that movie theater or fast-food restaurant jobs fall into these catagories. The only other thing that he could think of is that his credit is poor. He has gotten behind on some medical bills & credit cards, but that is exactly WHY HE NEEDS a second job. His day job barely pays for his current bills & living expenses. I wish that I could help him out more, but I am in the same boat that he is financially. He doesn't have a lot of friends, & his only living relatives (both of his parents are dead) are not able to help him. If anyone out there has any advice on this matter, we would appreciate it very much!

 

[Beth3]

If he isn't being hired because of his broken teeth, that is not prohibited discrimination. We also don't know what other candidates your fiance is up against when he's interviewed for these jobs. The job market is still tight in many, many areas and it's possible there are dozens of applicants for each position he's applied for, if not more.

I do understand your fiance's frustration. If there are any temporary staffing agencies in your area, I suggest he register with several of them. They are a good source of temporary jobs with various employers and can often lead to offers of full-time employment.

Lastly, if there is a medical/dental college within reasonable proximity, your fiance might want to see if they can perform his reconstructive dental work. It's my understanding that they are often looking for patients that dental students (in their final year) can work on, under the close supervision of fully qualified dentists/dental professors of course, and perform this work at a greatly reduced price or even for free.

 

[Duranie]

Nobosy knows the exact reason he is not been hired. You can speculate. He might want to give these employers a call to see if he can get some feedback, whether it be positive or negative.

As far as his teeth, if he works with the public, this can be frowned upon and it is actually not illegal to discriminate on looks. The EEOC does not protect against felons, looks, etc.. so if he is being discriminated against it is not necessarily illegal.

 

[muggsyj]

This is not Legal Advice.

I have been involved with working with the public for at least 25 years.
A good thing to remember is "people buy people first and everthing else second"
Apperiance is one quality potential employers look for, I know it seems a bit shallow but that is the world we live in. The competition in life is hard and only the fitest survive, if a rough cut diamond is the issue "tele sales may well be the key!"