You would think that a business could hire whomever it wants as long as it is not obviously discriminating against, say, women or people of a certain ethnicity. But Sacramento business owners may be surprised to know that they have to be more careful than that since the government agencies that enforce our employment laws see discrimination everywhere.

Take the case of Pepsi Beverages, one of the largest Pepsi bottlers in the Midwest. It recently announced that it has to pay over $3 million to settle claims that it engaged in racial discrimination in reviewing job applicants. Furthermore, it has to extend job offers and provide employment training to applicants whom it chose not to hire and may have been affected by its allegedly discriminatory hiring policy.

The Midwest branch of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said the issue here was a background-check policy that prohibited workers who had been arrested, but not convicted of anything, from ever being hired. Such a policy unfairly affects the black community, according to the EEOC.

Employers are permitted to look at criminal histories as they review applicants, but the kind of offenses that make an applicant unemployable must be connected to the work in some way (i.e. a bank could refuse to hire a teller who had been convicted of embezzling, but probably not if he had been convicted of arson). In the case of Pepsi Beverages, workers who were arrested and released or convicted of trifling offenses were turned down, even though their infractions had nothing to do with the work they were seeking.

This is a good example of why man business owners have attorneys review their policies and practices. Having an attorney tell you that your business is doing things properly can provide great peace of mind.

Source: The Minneapolis Star Tribune, "Pepsi bottler to pay $3.1 million to resolve discrimination charge," Dee DePass, Jan. 11, 2012