¶ … New Haven Firefighters Affirmative Action Case
Employers frequently utilize tests and other choice methods in order to screen candidates for hire and workers for promotion. There are a lot of different kinds of tests and selection procedures, including cognitive tests, personality tests, medical examinations, credit checks, and criminal background checks. The utilization of tests and other selection measures can be a very successful way of determining which candidates or workers are most qualified for a particular job. On the other hand, the use of these apparatus can infringe on the federal anti-discrimination laws if an employer deliberately uses them to discriminate based on race, color, sex, national origin, religion, disability, or age. The utilization of tests and other selection measures can also violate the federal anti-discrimination laws if they unduly eliminate people in a particular group by race, sex, or another covered basis, unless the employer can give good reason for the test or process under the law (Recruiting and Retaining a Diverse Workforce, 2003).
As the key to the successful development of promotional exams, the EEOC has set up the Uniform Guidelines for Employee Selection which necessitates an employer to institute, by study and documentation, an association between the knowledge, skills, and abilities essential for achievement in a position, and the result of the selection mechanism used to make choices or rankings. The amount of correlation and correctness must be assessed and recognized, and this becomes more significant if the selection mechanism is used to establish a rank order for hiring, as opposed to the formation of a pool or group of qualified candidates which are hired on more prejudiced criteria or additional exercises. These Guidelines found a procedure of mounting, documenting, examining, administering, and assessing post-administration, and of ongoing to implement a worker selection process which reduces possible adverse impact on protected minority groups (Rodriguez, 2011).
In 2003, the New Haven Fire Department in Connecticut gave a test intended to measure eligibility for promotions to lieutenant and captain. Scores for Hispanics and for African-Americans came in 34 to 59% below the scores for whites. Due to the manner in which the promotions were structured, no African-American and only one Hispanic would have been given any of the fifteen promotions. The problem then became whether the Civil Service Board would validate the exam results. After five days of hearings, the board decided the test was faulty and decided not to promote anyone founded on the exam (Totenberg, 2009).
Almost all written promotional tests have a disparate impact or adverse impact on minorities. A lot of research indicates that blacks score an average of one standard deviation below whites on cognitive exams. This difference is recognized to be due to an assortment of reasons, none of them connected to the knowledge, skills and abilities of firefighters with respect to each other or in the performance of the job. Nor is such performance connected to study habits, as so many cities and firefighters like to think. It is easy to take courses to get ready to study and take multiple choice tests but how one scores on such written tests is not an indication of how well they will do their job, which is the legal condition of what any promotional or hiring test should look for (Disparate Impact in Promotional Testing, n.d.)
Almost all tests for safety workforces entail an appraisal portion of the examination. Because such tests are so extensively diverse, this part of the examination creates particular hazards for sufficient and unbiased testing and criterion. When designing tests one needs to evaluate the factors in the examinations, such as whether they are written, oral, or an actual simulation of a fire scene. Possible bias can creep in by way of subjective grading, whether there are checks and balances, whether knowledgeable personnel are doing the evaluating, whether the test correctly gauges officer qualities or whether the arrangement of how the test scenarios are presented (Disparate Impact in Promotional Testing, n.d.)
The need for a diverse workforce is an essential part of the human resource necessities connected with triumphant constant quality improvement plans. A diverse workforce in which the offerings of each member, faculty, staff, or administrator, are appreciated and esteemed is an institution's most vital quality. Such a workforce is able to manufacture an assortment of viewpoints and processes for the victorious completion of tasks. Employers can build on well-known individual and group forces and develop standards that generate an atmosphere to get the best out of each person (Recruiting and Retaining a Diverse Workforce, 2003).
A vital feature in the recruitment and retention of a diverse workforce...
jonsmom2 the New Haven Firefighters Affirmative Action received kind attention a lo Diversity in the Workplace There are several factors to consider when discussing the prudence of the decision of the city of New Haven, Connecticut, to dismiss the results of two promotional exams for its fire department on the grounds that its results would leave the city open to litigation based upon racial bias. In a case as morally and
With this ruling the Court upheld legality of affirmative action. In considering the reasoning behind the Court's upholding of the highly debated principle, the rationale was that to remedy past discrimination, a program that is race-based must be put into effect. Clearly, the Court was concerned with becoming intertwined in the daily administration of academic programs, and the same would have likely held true for the workplace. The Bakke case had
New Haven Firefighters The Supreme Court case of Ricci v. DeStefano was heard in April of 2009, and the Court's decision was issued in favor of the plaintiffs on 29 June, 2009. The plaintiffs here, Ricci et al., were nineteen firefighters from New Haven, Connecticut who had sued the administration of New Haven mayor John DeStefano over the decision to disregard results from a written examination given for promotion within the
Discrimination and Affirmative Action "Firefighting is a skilled job where all of the skills learned are on the job… It's a really good job, and it's been racially exclusive in most of our major cities…" (John Payton, NAACP) (Liptak, 2009, The New York Times) Workplace issues that revolve around racial fairness and racial justice typically are highly charged with passion and contentiousness. The now notorious case of the Caucasian firefighters in New
Conservatives, on the other hand, have many passions and one of them is a color-blind government. Most of them believe that all policies of discrimination should be discarded. They view these policies as unwise, immoral and unconstitutional. Three conservative organizations submitted a collective brief to the Supreme Court on the Michigan cases. These organizations were the Center for Equal Opportunity, the Independent Women's Forum and the American Civil Rights
Business Ethics Case Study -- Harassment on the Job Applicable Ethical Systems The principal ethical system at issue in this case is the concept of equal rights and opportunities and, even more fundamentally, the obligation of employers to protect all rights of their employees from malicious conduct and abuse from coworkers (Halbert & Ingulli, 2008). Employment law expressly prohibits harassment at work in connection with gender and also absolutely requires management to
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