Employment Law Early in 1978, Ed Harbour picked up a seventeen-year-old female hitchhiker on his truck driving route throughout the state of Indiana. Once he picked her up, he performed some very heinous crimes as he brutally raped and beat her. After he performed his business on this woman he left her in the sleeping compartment of his truck. Before this crime, Harbour was recently released from prison as this violent event took place only one year after he was convicted of the aggravated sodomy of two teenage hitchhikers.

An adequate pre-employment inquiry into Harbour's criminal history would almost certainly have resulted in his employer rejecting his employment application and therefore might have prevented the beating and rape of this young woman hitchhiker who was not looking for this to be done to her. Unfortunately, this is a problem that many employers often overlook in order to maximize their profits and minimize their costs. Because employees commit crimes on a regular basis, pre-employment screening may prevent all kinds of previous offenses. Therefore, it makes sense that when employers fail to make adequate inquiries into the criminal histories of prospective employees, they may be subject to liability under the doctrine of negligent hiring.

Although each case should be understood on its own merit, negligent hiring is especially troublesome in certain aspects of the labor market. When jobs such as driving expose people to unnecessary risks, certain responsibilities should...

Discrimination is a very useful tool that helps every single person decide what is best for them and avoid the things that are not attractive to them. Unfortunately discrimination can also be used against someone as well. Employment discrimination is ironically mandated and regulated in such programs as affirmative action, yet are demonized when other circumstances are present. This presents many problems for organizations looking to hire new people into their organization, everyone is human and there are things to like and dislike in each and every one of us.
Employers should always be able to discriminate against whomever they desire to as long as these actions do not inflict undue harm on anyone else. It is also important that people do not have a mandatory right to work either, so employers should hire who they want, when they want and for the reasons that choose.

Too often society tries to eliminate or downplay diversity. There appears a constant urge to eliminate any individuality within the workplace making the environment quite boring and stagnant. Instead we should celebrate our diversity and have faith and trust that people know how to use their discrimination for the better even when there are times when they fail. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder anyway so employers and employees alike should follow their heart's desire…