• FreeAdvice has a new Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, effective May 25, 2018.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our Terms of Service and use of cookies.

Discriminitory Promotions

Accident - Bankruptcy - Criminal Law / DUI - Business - Consumer - Employment - Family - Immigration - Real Estate - Tax - Traffic - Wills   Please click a topic or scroll down for more.

workingguy5820

New member
I work for a female manager (Naturalized), with questionable promotion practices. Out of 5 promotions, 3 were not opened for application. Those promoted were simply placed in their new roles without a notice that a position was available. Out of those 5 promotions, 4 were minority. Only 1 was Caucasian. The state this took place in is California.

Is this questionable or illegal?
 


quincy

Senior Member
I work for a female manager (Naturalized), with questionable promotion practices. Out of 5 promotions, 3 were not opened for application. Those promoted were simply placed in their new roles without a notice that a position was available. Out of those 5 promotions, 4 were minority. Only 1 was Caucasian. The state this took place in is California.

Is this questionable or illegal?
Questionable or illegal? Not based solely on what you describe.

Would you care to provide more details? For example, what sort of job do you perform (what type of employment)? What is the size of your employer (how many total work for this employer)? What is the makeup of the workforce (percentage of minority workers)?

I probably have other questions but we can start with those. :)
 

Taxing Matters

Overtaxed Member
I work for a female manager (Naturalized), with questionable promotion practices. Out of 5 promotions, 3 were not opened for application. Those promoted were simply placed in their new roles without a notice that a position was available. Out of those 5 promotions, 4 were minority. Only 1 was Caucasian. The state this took place in is California.

Is this questionable or illegal?
I assume that this is a private company and a not a government agency. The law does not specify any particular process that a private company must use to decide promotions. So no law says that a company must use an application process for deciding promotions. The company can just have a manager select the person he or she thinks is the best for the job.

What federal and California law do say is that the company cannot engage in illegal discrimination. Making the promotion decisions based on race, color, national origin, or citizenship would be illegal discrimination. So the question here is whether the company decided the promotions based on those factors or based on something else. The fact that 4 of the 5 promotions were given to nonwhite employees tells me nothing about whether race, color, national origin, or citizenship were the reasons for the promotion choice. It could have been that those persons were simply the best ones for the job. You'd need to dig a bit more to determine if illegal discrimination was at work here.

In addition to the questions quincy asked, how many people were eligible for the promotions and out of that pool, what percentage were white?
 

workingguy5820

New member
I assume that this is a private company and a not a government agency. The law does not specify any particular process that a private company must use to decide promotions. So no law says that a company must use an application process for deciding promotions. The company can just have a manager select the person he or she thinks is the best for the job.

What federal and California law do say is that the company cannot engage in illegal discrimination. Making the promotion decisions based on race, color, national origin, or citizenship would be illegal discrimination. So the question here is whether the company decided the promotions based on those factors or based on something else. The fact that 4 of the 5 promotions were given to nonwhite employees tells me nothing about whether race, color, national origin, or citizenship were the reasons for the promotion choice. It could have been that those persons were simply the best ones for the job. You'd need to dig a bit more to determine if illegal discrimination was at work here.

In addition to the questions quincy asked, how many people were eligible for the promotions and out of that pool, what percentage were white?
1 of the promotions had 9, and 4 of them had 13 eligible.

My biggest concern, is that these positions were not opened for application, so therefore qualifications of all eligible could not be considered. I then deduce that these promotions were made based on something other than qualifications. Additionally, the demographic makeup of the promotions is drastically different than the makeup of the work group.

White: 43%
Black: 29%
Hispanic: 14%
Filipino: 7%
Middle Eastern: 7%
 

workingguy5820

New member
Questionable or illegal? Not based solely on what you describe.

Would you care to provide more details? For example, what sort of job do you perform (what type of employment)? What is the size of your employer (how many total work for this employer)? What is the makeup of the workforce (percentage of minority workers)?

I probably have other questions but we can start with those. :)
What type of employment?

I work in IT\Electronics manufacturing and service. I specialize in computing equipment.

What is the size of your employer (how many total work for this employer)? < 200

What is the makeup of the workforce (percentage of minority workers)?

White: 43%
Black: 29%
Hispanic: 14%
Filipino: 7%
Middle Eastern: 7%
 

quincy

Senior Member
Thank you for answering our questions, workingguy5820.

I can’t tell you if the promotions by your employer were illegal but they certainly give rise to some questions about the promotion practices of the employer.

You might want to speak to a lawyer in your area for a personal review. Whether there is a discrimination claim to pursue (or one worth pursuing) can be determined better with this review.

Good luck.
 

Ohiogal

Queen Bee
What type of employment?

I work in IT\Electronics manufacturing and service. I specialize in computing equipment.

What is the size of your employer (how many total work for this employer)? < 200

What is the makeup of the workforce (percentage of minority workers)?

White: 43%
Black: 29%
Hispanic: 14%
Filipino: 7%
Middle Eastern: 7%
Why did you point out that the manager is "naturalized" and female?
 

quincy

Senior Member
I pointed that out because of the minority status on 2 separate levels. It appears that the promotions in this group are heavily weighted against Caucasians. Simply a detail.
Because there could exist several legitimate legal reasons for the manager to promote the employees she did that have nothing at all to do with citizenship, national origin, race, sex or gender, there needs to be a more thorough look at your workplace and its hiring/firing/promotion history.

Your observations might correctly be telling you discrimination but your observations are only a starting point. You have a long way to go before you can successfully support a claim of discrimination.

Good luck.
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
It's been mentioned before, but I just want to make sure the OP fully understands:

NO law requires that promotions (or jobs at all) be posted. There is NO requirement that positions, promotions, or any other kind of hire, be open for all to apply. It is ABSOLUTELY LEGAL for an employee to be appointed into a new position without the job ever being posted and without a single application being made. NO law. A union contract might; a company policy might. When in the public sector there might be some requirements for some jobs. But in the private sector, it is NOT required by law.

It is ONLY if the employees are being chosen for such appointments on the basis of a characteristic protected by law that there is any question of illegal discrimination. Every person on the face of the planet has a minimum of three such characteristics - we all have a race, we all have a gender and we all have a national origin, so it takes more than simply being a member of such a protected group. The choice must have been made BECAUSE OF that characteristic before it is illegal.
 

Taxing Matters

Overtaxed Member
1 of the promotions had 9, and 4 of them had 13 eligible.

My biggest concern, is that these positions were not opened for application, so therefore qualifications of all eligible could not be considered.
No law requires a private employer to open up promotions to application.

I then deduce that these promotions were made based on something other than qualifications.
That's logically flawed. There is nothing about picking the people for promotion by some means other than by application that would logically support the conclusion that the promotions were based on something other than qualifications. The company official making the promotions may have been well acquainted with the people who could be considered for it and already knew which ones were the most capable. In that case using an application process would simply be a waste of everyone's time and effort since they already know the most qualified candidates.

Additionally, the demographic makeup of the promotions is drastically different than the makeup of the work group.
While that may invite closer scrutiny of the promotion decisions, that statistical difference alone does not compel the conclusion that illegal discrimination was at work. After all, while over a very large number of coin flips you'd expect to get roughly 50% heads and 50% tails it is quite possible on a limited number of flips that you'll get something much different. For example, on 10 flips you might get 8 heads and 2 tails. Similarly, while your overall workforce is 43% white (and therefore 57% nonwhite) it is certainly possible that more than 57% of the best qualified candidates for these recent promotions were, in fact, nonwhite. You mentioned 5 promotions, 4 of which went to nonwhite candidates. That's 80% of the promotions that were nonwhite. If just one of those nonwhite persons had been white instead , it would have been 60% nonwhite and 40% white, very close to the overall company wide distribution of 57% nonwhite to 43% white. Isn't it quite possible that in this round one more nonwhite person happened to be among the best qualified? When the whole statistical difference comes down to just one selection that is not a very compelling argument that illegal discrimination must have been involved.

Certainly you may wish to see an employment law attorney who litigates illegal discrimination cases for advice. Most give free initial consultations. So it won't cost you anything to talk to an attorney or two to see if they think you have something to pursue. Maybe additional facts would make the case stronger, but just from what you have said here there certainly isn't anything jumping out at me that screams illegal discrimination.
 

zddoodah

Active Member
I work for a female manager (Naturalized), with questionable promotion practices.
What does the parenthetical "Naturalized" mean in this sentence? And what difference does it make that she's female?

Out of those 5 promotions, 4 were minority. Only 1 was Caucasian.
I assume "minority" means not Caucasian.

Is this questionable or illegal?
It's illegal if the promotions were made because of race/ethnicity/national origin. However, nothing in your post supports that conclusion. Just because 4 of 5 promoted persons were not Caucasian, by itself, is meaningless.

My biggest concern, is that these positions were not opened for application, so therefore qualifications of all eligible could not be considered.
Huh? Why does not opening a promotion for application make it so that qualifications could not be considered. These were promotions of existing employees, right? So, why would the employer need applications to know its own employees' qualifications?

I then deduce that these promotions were made based on something other than qualifications.
There's no logic behind this (at least not based on the facts shared).

By the way...why do you care? Are you seeking a promotion or were you potentially eligible for one of the promotions in question? If so, then you might sit down with your manager and ask what it will take for you to get promoted next time the opportunity comes up. I would suggest you steer clear of comments about race/ethnicity.
 

Find the Right Lawyer for Your Legal Issue!

Fast, Free, and Confidential
data-ad-format="auto">
Top