News & Announcements
As part of U-T San Diego’s new jobs beat, we’re taking questions from readers on anything about the job market, and running them by our experts.
Can job ads ask for your photo?
By Jonathan Horn
San Diego Union Tribune
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
As part of U-T San Diego’s new jobs beat, we’re taking questions from readers on anything about the job market, and running them by our experts.
Today’s question comes from Kevin Leonard of Chula Vista. Leonard said he came across a recent posting on Craigslist that, as part of the application, asked for a picture of the applicant. The job was for a customer service/general office worker. Leonard wanted to know if the request was legal, so we ran it by Dan Eaton, an attorney who represents employers for the San Diego firm Seltzer Caplan McMahon Vitek:
Q: Can an employer request a photo of an applicant in a job ad?
A: It’s illegal to ask for a photo in connection with a job application. It could disclose, for example, race and ethnicity, and act as an unlawful screening mechanism. Department of Fair Employment Housing regulations forbid it.
Q: If someone sees that ad, what can they do in response?
A: If they see such a request in an ad, and they want to apply for the job, they may want to submit an application without a photo and note that the request is not permitted under California (law). They may want to forward the application and the note to the Department of Fair Employment and Housing, but only if they do not receive an interview. The remedy from a court absent a decision not to hire the applicant probably would be limited to an order prohibiting the practice and, perhaps, attorneys’ fees incurred in getting such an order.
To view the article on the San Diego Union Tribune’s website, click here.
