Britt Jones
A new Bill has been proposed, and it’s got a lot of people online asking the same question.
In Ohio, some legislators are attempting to lay down the law when it comes to job interviews, and it’s a controversial stance they’ve chosen to put into force.
When it comes to job applications, inevitably, the right candidate will be asked to attend an interview.
But what happens when they don’t show up? Queue House Bill 395.
Nobody likes having their time wasted, especially when it comes to selecting an applicant they’ll have to pay to train.
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In the end, time is money and so, the proposed House Bill 395 comes with the hope of creating an online registry of applicants who don’t show up to job interviews without prior notice to the employer.
Essentially, the Department of Job and Family Services will create a report of who doesn’t show up, with the Bill’s sponsors hailing it as a solution to protect employers and state unemployment services.
According to the Department of Job and Family Services, there has been around 50,000 of those living in Ohio who have filed for unemployment benefits in just the last week.
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As the state doesn’t allow people to receive unemployment if they aren’t attempting to get a job, it similarly does the same with those skipping interviews or ignoring employers.
A co-sponsor of the Bill, Rep. Brian Lorenz (R-Powell) said his constituents have seen more and more people not attend their job interviews.
He believes that keeping a report on those people will hold them accountable for missing the interview.
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It could also deter them from blowing it off.
“The bill rewards professionalism. If you value employers’ time, this process is going to value you,” Lorenz said. “And it just modernizes the employment process and it holds applicants accountable and it helps employers thrive.”
As for the public, they have one question in mind: what about the ramifications for employers who commit similar acts against candidates?
On Reddit, a discussion was opened on the topic and people said the same thing.
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One person asked: “Can they also track and fine employers who post fake jobs and ghost applicants?”
Another said: “It should also keep a list of companies that ghost you during the application process.”
Someone else wrote: “Fine, if they also make employers notify job applicants/interviewees that they didn't get the job-and why.”
Senate Democrat Bill DeMora disagrees with the Bill, stating it’ll penalize those who need to miss their interview due to emergencies.
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“This bill is another answer, looking for a question,” DeMora said. “It is something that’s not needed. I mean, there are procedures in line already for unemployment compensation.
“All this is going to do is make somebody less likely to actually want to get unemployment compensation … It’s just something else that penalizes people,” DeMora added.
Even though there is already a reporting system in place, Lorenz thinks this one will be more efficient, stating: “We’re just trying to modernize and update Ohio to the 21st century.
“When we do things like this it makes our state more competitive against the other states from an economic standpoint.”
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He went on to say the Bill aims to ‘build and foster a culture of respect and accountability and stop wasting employers’ valuable time’, instead of black listing people who skip their interviews.