Monthly Archives: January 2012

Pepsico pay out millions because they didn’t Recruit With Conviction

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There are a number of news sources over the pond reporting Pepsico‘s failure to recruit people with criminal records. This has resulted in the company being required to pay out $3.13 million to the applicants they discriminated against.

Pepsico applied a blanket ban in recruiting people with Criminal Records, rather than doing a professional risk assessment of the convictions.

This was evidenced to be race discrimination because it affected the employment rights of some ethnic groups more than others.

This would be even more significant if it was using gender data because men are about 10 times more likely than women to have convictions. 1

Figures also suggest that about 1 in 3, 40 year old men have a criminal conviction.

This blog does not claim to offer legal advice and quite clearly, the legislation applied was American. However, failure to risk assess criminal convictions properly is clearly gender discrimination and it risks being race discrimination to a lesser extent.

Any criticism of Pepsico also needs to be put into perspective because of an error in the design of their HR processes can be seen replicated in many companies.

The real criticism of Pepsico should come from its shareholders because the company has failed to make use of the untapped potential of a group of people, who given the chance and the proper initial support, can repay the company with hard work and loyalty.

Also to be fair to Pepsico these charges applied to their bottling operations for they have changed their recruitment policies in the US to be more inclusive.

1 various stats exist on http://www.justice.gov.uk/publications/statistics-and-data/prisons-and-probation/prison-population-projections-ns.htm

Pepsico’s worldwide code of conduct http://www.pepsico.com/Download/CodeOfConduct/English_09.pdf

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-11/pepsi-beverages-to-pay-3-13-million-in-race-discrimination-case.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/industries/pepsi-beverages-pays-313-million-to-settle-federal-race-discrimination-charges/2012/01/11/gIQAHtgyqP_story.html

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20120111-713074.html

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505125_162-57360397/pepsis-eeoc-violation-isnt-just-about-discrimination/

http://www.firstpost.com/fwire/pepsi-to-pay-3-13-mn-to-settle-racial-discrimination-charge-180109.html

Why do the Police Recruit People with Criminal Records?

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Why do the Police Recruit People with Criminal Records? …

Quite simply because there is a talented pool of people who have criminal records and who also apply for work with the police.

Ex-offenders are discriminated against because of negative stereotyping, and it is not too difficult to deduct that  there is real untapped potential among people with criminal records. The police see this day in and day out.

It is good recruitment practice for all employers to select the best candidate for the job and to risk assess the relevance of any convictions that the candidate has.

I doubt anybody can argue that the police are well placed to conduct such risk assessments and err very much on the side of caution (forgive the pun) when they decide to Recruit With Conviction.  Recruiting in this way demonstrates just how inclusive the police have become in recent years, especially in light of all of the recent publicity. It also provides good value for the public purse!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16383538

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8987795/Nearly-1000-serving-police-officers-and-PCSOs-have-a-criminal-record.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2081700/How-public-respect-police-officers-respect-law.html

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