Height Requirement
By rychelle314
@rychelle314 (285)
October 22, 2008 10:51am CST
Recently in the office, there was a direction (not official or declared publicly)from the higher ups not to hire women less than 5'2 in height. I'm petite and barely 5'. Also, the average height of women in this country is 4'11.
I find it ludicrous that a company as big as ours (trans-national) is so bigoted to issue such foolish direction. I wish our government is stricter in ensuring that even big companies implement equal employment opportunities.
2 responses
@capirani (2756)
• United States
22 Oct 08
I do not know where you are from, but in our country it would be considered discrimination unless the job required a particular height for the person to be able to do the job. Therefore, it would be against the law to not hire someone because of their height or other physical attribute or handicap. Companies here have to provide reasonable accomodation for such instances. However, if the job was such that it would be impossible for someone shorter to do the job, then it would not be discrimination. For instance, suppose you need a woman for a specific job and it has to be a woman. It would not be discrimination not to hire a man. An example would be if the job was to fill the position of an actress playing a female role. It would be ludicrous to hire a man for that job. There are very few jobs that have such requirements however.
@rychelle314 (285)
•
23 Oct 08
Despite the provisions in our Labor Code which clearly prohibits all forms of discrimination, unfortunately, some big companies do get away with it.
Also, I indicated that this direction was never publicized. Hence, it's also quite possible that our government is just as unaware as the general public.
@capirani (2756)
• United States
23 Oct 08
Yes, and a lot of companies will find "other" reasons to not hire or fire someone that will not apply to the discrimination so they don't get charged with that. It is very hard to prove discrimination. But if it is in writing anywhere, grab hold of a copy. Someone needs to have a copy of it.
@shell94 (990)
• Canada
22 Oct 08
Is that not a form of discrimination? I know that this would be considered so in this country, Canada. Employers are not allowed to base employment on conditions like that. They are supposed to treat everyone as equals in their own rite when the making hiring decisions.
@rychelle314 (285)
•
23 Oct 08
I have the exact sentiments! Although my position is already stable, nonetheless I still believe that this is simply foul and bang out of order.
I did voiced out this concern but as I have almost expected, it was naught.
