Fired for falsified application — then sues for bias
October 31, 2008 by Sam NarisiPosted in: Background checks, In This Week's E-Newsletter, Latest News & Views, Law
A woman sued her company for sex discrimination after she was fired for lying on her employment application.
The reason for the termination: When asked about her employment history, Heather Kearney decided not to include a prior stint as a Hooters waitress.
Once the employer found out, Kearney was fired for submitting a false application.
Kearney claims she left it out because it was irrelevant to the criminal intelligence analyst job she was applying for. She’s now arguing that firing her because of the Hooters gig constitutes gender discrimination.
She also claims she was passed over for promotions that were given to less-qualified men.
What do you think about the case? Should the company have fired her for leaving out a previous job — even one that had nothing to do with the job being offered? Was it discrimination?
Let us know in the comments section below.
Tags: application, discrimination, Hooters
October 31st, 2008 at 8:48 am
If she was fired for leaving irrelevant jobs off her application, then everybody who ever completed an application or sent a resume should be fired. There’s but so much room on a job application and as others stated in the previous story on this, resumes would be way too long if every job was listed. You’ve got women and men out there that did everything from digging graveyards to trimming hedges, but they left it off their resume. I know Hooters has a stereotype attached to it but come on what does that have to do with her current job? She didn’t lie about the job, she just left it off the application. You’d be surprised how many executives out there “hootered” their way to the top anyway. There has got to be more to this case than what’s revealed here.
October 31st, 2008 at 9:43 am
It depends on how the application was worded. If the application asked that all jobs held within a given period of time (3 years, 5 years, etc.) be listed and she didn’t list it, then yes – that is falsification and the company was within its rights. If the application was not explicit in asking for all jobs held, then an omission isn’t really falsification. Either way, it seems like kind of a jump to gender discrimination.
November 3rd, 2008 at 8:50 am
Why did she leave it out in the first place? She obviously is hiding something. Definitely falsification and the company is within their rights. People need to start taking responsibility for their actions. And, yes, Discrimination is a far reach.
November 3rd, 2008 at 10:15 am
Deja vu? Um, didn’t we already talk about this one?
November 3rd, 2008 at 6:02 pm
I would ad to JVN’s comment that you should look at what you have previously done in similar situations. If you are using the work number or some similar source and you find out that other employees have failed to put down… did you make the same employment desicion that you did in this case?
November 7th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
I agree with JVN, it depends on how the application was worded. . I think this woman has a good case, if other employees are found, especially men, who did not list all jobs on their application. However, since her current job is “criminal intelligence analyst” her employer may have reason to have a higher bar for complete disclosure than others. Her reason for leaving it out could easily be fear of this very kind of discrimination based on that job. I think she’ll win unless the application is very clear about the organizaitons criteria about listing other jobs.
November 7th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Something is missing. How long was she employed? How sensitive is her position? How long ago was she employed at Hooters? Cases such as this have been heard before. They have fallen on both sides of the issue. The most recent one that I can remember ruled for the employee saying the omission was not material to the position applied for rather or not the omission was deliberate.
March 13th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
I believe it was not relevent to the position. Lets be real about this. If she had included it she probably would not have been given an interview. There are a lot of conservative people in positions making hireing decisions. To believe it would not have prejudiced the process against her is wishful thinking.
If the job had involved criminal activity it would be an issue. God forbid she had ever been an exotic dancer. She would never find a job.
July 10th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
Why did she not get promotions? Was she truly just as qualified as the others who were promoted before her? Are other qualified women promoted? What else is in her record? Did she have performance issues? Was the falsified application the only reason for her being fired or was it just the last straw? Did the application require complete and full disclosure of all past employers?
Even if it was discrimination, was it sex discrimination or was it discrimination against anyone who had worked in that kind of environment. (Not a protected class).
This article doesn’t tell the other side of the story so I cannot decide whether its sex discrimination or not.