Page 16 - Sept 2017

Field Representative’s Report
NOJO disqualifications can be a no-no
Notices of Job Opportunities (NOJO) are post- ed on the administration messages pretty fre- quently.
These notices come with minimal qualifica- tions to be considered for the position. One of these qualifications is the amount of time you have been on the medical. The problem is, the Department doesn’t delineate what the medical time was for and has wrongly and possibly ille- gally disqualified officers to be considered for
these opportunities.
In the recent weeks, I have had two incidents for separate
job opportunities in which a female officer was disqualified based on her medical usage. In both incidents, the officer’s medical usage was for the birth of a child and complica- tions arising from that childbirth.
The Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 amended the Civil Rights Act to include pregnancy and related medical conditions as part of the class under sex by adding the fol- lowing subsection 701k:
“The terms ‘because of sex’ or ‘on the basis of sex’ in- clude, but are not limited to, because of or on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions;
and women affected by pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions shall be treated the same for all employment-related purposes...”
Additionally, Section 703 of the Civil Rights Act makes it illegal for an employer to use a woman’s pregnancy to de- prive her of an employment opportunity. According to this section:
“It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an em- ployer to limit, segregate or classify employees in any way which would deprive or tend to deprive any individual of employment opportunities, or otherwise adversely affect status as an employee, because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex or national origin.”
If the officers in question would have allowed Human Resources to disqualify them and not inquired about why, they would not have been given their rightful opportunity to interview for these jobs.
The Lodge encourages members who have been disqual- ified for a NOJO position to inquire as to the reason why. If you feel it is based on an unjust decision, write a “To-From” to the Department’s Director of Human resources asking for an appeal. If would like help, please call the Lodge, and I or another field representative will assist you. d
ROBERT BARTLETT
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16 CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ SEPTEMBER 2017