Ethical Issue: A recruiter for an organization has an outstanding prospect for a

Question

Ethical Issue: A recruiter for an organization has an outstanding prospect for a position. As part of his screening process, the recruiter checks the online presence of the candidate and discovers from her social networks that she is 18 weeks pregnant—and happily so. He knows that the target position involves a big project that will go live just about the time she will be taking maternity leave. He decides not to continue the hiring process with this candidate. Is his action legal? Ethical? What lesson could be learned about posting private information online?

Explanation / Answer

The Pregnancy Discrimination Act amendment of Title VII clearly defines pregnancy as a form of sex discrimination and thus refusing to hire someone on the basis of her pregnancy is unlawful according to EEOC. Women who are pregnant or affected by any pregnancy-related conditions must be treated in the same manner as other applicants or employees with similar abilities or limitations both in the case of hiring or afterward. it is very clearly stated that "an employer cannot refuse to hire a pregnant woman because of her pregnancy, because of a pregnancy-related condition, or because of the prejudices of co-workers, clients, or customers." So, the recruiter's prediction regarding the candidate's maternity leave during the project go live is insufficient reason to refuse to hire the candidate. Instead, the recruiter should treat the candidate in a manner such that it is consistent with any existing employee experiencing pregnancy during the project. Since the action taken by the recruiter is not legal there is no question about its ethics.

However, the prospective candidate has to remember that the reason for not hiring her can be subtly hidden and the recruiter, knowing the legalities, may camouflage the actual reason using other manufactured legal reasons (e.g. incompetence, lack of skill, lack of experience, and so on). Therefore, for the candidate, it is advised to responsibly post private material on the social media and keep a protection level at such a level that outsiders cannot observe and decide on the basis irrelevant matters (and yes, pregnancy is legally an irrelevant matter as long as hiring is concerned) posted in the social media.

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