President Obama’s job bill has not been as successful as he and his party had hoped it would be. With elections coming up in the next year, Obama is struggling to try and create new jobs, help the unemployed become the employed, and of course, win the election. Taking a different approach this time, instead of creating new jobs, how about open up jobs that had once been impossible for an unemployed worker to get?
Many employers require an applicant to list if they are unemployed, and if so, for how long. Many times, the answer to this question will make or break an application. Many employers would not hire someone who had been unemployed for a long period of time, under the pretence that an unemployed person has been away from the work force for too long, they have probably lost skills and have become lazy. This is of course not the case for every person.
Many people have been searching for jobs for over a year but just have not been able to acquire one. This is creating a class of workers who are unemployed, and keep getting passed over by employers, and are going to continue to get passed over as the length of their unemployment increases. Obama proposes that as apart of his jobs bill, a law would be passed making it illegal for employers to pass over an applicant based on employment status (adding to the list of not being able to discriminate based no gender , race religion or national origin). It would allow a job applicant who believes they have been discriminated against based on employment status to sue the employer.
However like every proposed change, or addition of a law, there are disagreements. A large complaint from the republicans is that it is going to be too easy for applicants to claim unfair application processes, and people will be able to sue companies with ease. This will lead to unnecessary law suits and do little to help the problem.
Personally, I believe that this is a step in the right direction. This is definitely an issue that needs to be addressed. However, there is definitely the possibility of people taking advantage of this. I don’t believe Obama is entirely there yet with this plan, but with some improvement it has the potential to help hundreds of unemployed, and hopefully decrease the growing class of unemployed.
I think Obama has a good start, but he has to do something else along with this to really get things going. Like you said, lawsuits against companies will be sparking up all over the country. Lawsuits, like everything else, take money and time. What will they do to the economy? Will they slow down the process of getting through other court cases? Will the government have to hire more judges and pay more people? I don't know if it will be that extreme, but it's a thought. So many consequences to consider!
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