Public News Service-NV
August 29, 2011
Petition Drive Targets a 'Monster' of a Problem
LAS VEGAS, Nev. - Monster.com, an online company used by thousands of Nevada job-seekers, is the target of a petition drive organized to stop what supporters are calling discrimination against the unemployed. Drive organizers hope to convince Monster.com and similar job-listing websites to stop allowing companies to advertise jobs that prohibit unemployed people from applying.
Kelly Wiedemer, Westminster, Colo., is the author of the petition, which already has nearly 90,000 signatures. She says it puts unemployed workers like her in a bind.
"It's a horrible, horrible situation. Everybody, really, they don't want any form of welfare, so to speak, with unemployment. We want to work."
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." Even so, Monster.com has not banned the practice.
New Jersey already has a law banning job ads that prohibit jobless workers from applying, and Michigan and New York are considering similar legislation. A measure to outlaw the practice has also been introduced in Congress.
The practice of discrimination against the unemployed negates everything a worker has accomplished over a lifetime, Wiedemer says.
"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 websites like Monster and Career Builder to stop taking ads that she says discriminate against people without jobs.
Information about the petition drive is at http://tinyurl.com/3k3x7yr.
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