Monster KO's Florida's Unemployed
(Posted August 29, 2011 07:38 am)
By Les Coleman
ORLANDO, FL - Monster.com, a national online employment company used by thousands of Florida job seekers, is the target of a petition drive organized to stop what supporters are calling discrimination against the unemployed. Organizers are hoping to get Monster.com and similar job listing sites to stop allowing companies to advertise jobs that prohibit unemployed people from applying.
Kelly Wiedemer is the author of the petition that
already has nearly 90,000 signatures. She says it puts
unemployed workers like her in a bind.
"It's a horrible, horrible situation and everybody,
really they don't want any form of welfare, so to speak,
with unemployment. We want to work."
Link: The petition is here
A spokesman for Monster.com says: "Discrimination
based on employment status falls into a legal gray area.
Regardless of whether this type of discrimination is
legal or not, however, it is certainly unwise." At this
point, however, Monster has not banned the practice.
Wiedemer says the practice of discrimination against the
unemployed negates everything a worker has accomplished
over a lifetime.
"Without saying so, they said that my education, my
experience and my background had no value whatsoever."
Wiedemer says she hopes to collect 200,000 signatures in
her drive to get sites like Monster and Career Builder
to stop taking ads that she says discriminate against
people without jobs.
New Jersey already has a law banning job ads that
prohibit jobless workers from applying, and Michigan and
New York are considering it. A measure to outlaw the
practice has also been introduced in Congress.
Original Headline: Petition Drive Targets a 'Monster' of a Problem