Re: Denied Employement

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On 2/20/07, Victoria M wrote:
> On 2/20/07, RCW wrote:
>> On 2/20/07, Victoria M wrote:
>>> I applied for a position in a city 3 hours south of where
>>> I currently live. After the first two phone interviews I
>>> was asked to come have a "face to face" interview at the
>>> company. I thought all went well but recieved my "dear
>>> Jane" email a week later. I was able to pin down the HR
>>> rep and asked her why I was denied employment. The first
>>> reason she gave me was I was not a good "cultural fit".
>>> This is a smaller town where most people are married. I am
>>> a single 40 year old female. Do I have any recourse here?
>>>
>>> Thanks.
>>
>> Maybe but it would be difficult to prove. Saying an
>> applicant is not a good "cutural" fit is outrageous if not
>> facially discriminatory. Problem is they will deny they
>> ever said that. You may want to send them a letter (via
>> fax..Certified mail may cause them to go into damage
>> control) reiterating what you were told by the HR rep and
>> ask for a response. They will probaly ignore your letter.
>> Dont threaten to sue or do any thing other than ask for
>> clarification.
>>
>> Under these circumstances a failure to respond may be deemed
>> as an admission at which point you would have proof of what
>> could be a unlawful discrimination. Best of luck to you.
>>
>>
> Would I send the letter to the HR Rep or someone higher up?
>
> Thanks.

I would personally send it to the HR rep. Keep in mind that
what you really want is no response which would be comprimised
if you sent it to a member of upper management. You should note
that in some rare employment settings an employer may be able to
lawfully discriminate against applicants due to what we call
BFOQs bonified occupational qaulifications. An example is
considering only black male actors to play the role of Malcom
X. Non blacks, females, applicants of certain ages will
generally be exluded from consideration. This is probably not
the case at hand but I offer it as an example to the BFOQ
rebuttle.

Not being a cultural fit raises discrimination based on marital
status and or national origin. Marital status is not protected
at the federal level (unless its been recently added) but many
states have state protection. Did you discuss your marital
status doing the interview? If so who raised the issue? That is
generally an illegal interview question.