Los Angeles Employment Lawyer
Bona Fide Occupational Qualifications
Although federal law explicitly forbids employers from discriminating between employees or potential employees based on factors such as age, sex, religion, or national origin, Title 29 of the United States Code provides an important – and logically necessary – exception to such anti-discrimination legislation.
U.S.C. Title 29, Chapter 14, section 623 states, in part, that:
“It shall NOT be unlawful for an employer, employment agency, or labor organization (1) to take any action otherwise prohibited under subsections (a), (b), (c), or (e) of this section where age is a bona fide occupational qualification reasonably necessary to the normal operation of the particular business, or where the differentiation is based on reasonable factors other than age…”
A bona fide occupational qualification (sometimes shortened to BFOQ) is a requirement which employers may legally impose on employees and potential employees – so long as that requirement is necessary to the way his/her business or organization is run. For example, an advertising agency for women’s clothing may legally exclude applications from male models, since gender is a bona fide occupational qualification for modeling women’s clothing.
The catch, however, is the phrase “reasonably necessary.” Court decisions have stated that BFOQs are only valid when they are “reasonably necessary” to the job being performed; simply working for an organization where BFOQs may apply does not meet this criterion. For example, though the advertising agency from the above example may legally exclude male applicants for a modeling position, it could not do so for a secretarial position, where sex is not a necessary factor.
To learn more about legal application of the BFOQ doctrine, contact Los Angeles employment lawyer Perry Smith at 888-356-2529.