Vigilant Blog

Answer: Yes, if the past lawsuit is your reason for doing so. State laws in California, Oregon, and Washington protect both employees and applicants from discrimination and retaliation, including protection when they have opposed a discriminatory practice by complaining to a government agency or filing a lawsuit. The Washington State Supreme Court recently considered this…

Answer: It depends. It is illegal to retaliate against an applicant by not hiring the individual because she filed a prior discrimination claim against your company. You should go through your normal hiring process and determine the best candidate based on non-discriminatory factors. Depending on the job, you may want to consider experience, skills, ability,…

Answer: Tests can be useful in identifying top job candidates, but it’s important to be thoughtful about how you incorporate testing into your hiring processes. Of course, it makes sense to select the most qualified candidate. However, you must ensure that your testing avoids a discriminatory adverse impact on the basis of a protected status…

A: No. Customer-facing jobs, such as receptionists and sales representatives, are often tied to having a socially acceptable “look.” While it is perfectly legal to require a professional, clean appearance, it is generally illegal to require an employee to look like a specific gender. This is considered gender stereotyping, and there is a long line…