How DHS and DOL Should Properly Address Employment Blacklisting

The Department of Labor (DOL) and The Department of Human Services (DHS) should address every issue that a client could be dealing with—including employment blacklisting—that hampers their ability to find and sustain earnest and safe employment. The clients should not be in it alone.

The Department of Human Services and the Department of Labor should certainly never participate in sanctioning or endorse reprisals against clients. In situations where clients are being blacklisted, DHS and DOL should investigate all of the details by taking statements from clients and conducting investigations that include contacting previous employers of clients and getting employment references; the agencies should also have the lawful authority to request and acquire clients’ complete HR files, which should include any written warnings or reprimands, and all of their employment evaluations, which should have been signed by the client and include any client comments. This would help to form a more objective perspective of blacklisted employees. 

Focus Groups with Clients

Once DOL and DHS representatives have completed their investigations, they should share vital information that their clients should know or any pointers that they should improve upon, i.e. time management, grooming, conflict resolution, etc., and, if deemed appropriate, recommend that they participate in courses that both DOL and DHS employment readiness agencies should offer addressing these issues…

Focus Groups with Previous Employers, etc. Who Harm Clients’ Employment Prospects

Whenever DHS and DOL investigations reveal that clients are being slandered or that previous employers are communicating inappropriate information to prospective employers, and that this is the underlying reason why the clients are not landing employment, DHS and DOL should intervene on behalf of the client by conducting focus groups with the previous employer, explaining the law and how their behavior infringes it and is injurious to not only the client, but to the government, which foots the bill when clients resort to public services. They should further discuss how employment blacklisting is bad for business, theoretically and literally, considering that consumer markets perform in proportion to the number of people who are employed and spending money.

...If it’s a situation where a company or representatives are obsessed with and/or are trying to force a client to resume employment with them against their wishes, particularly when the employee might have resigned due to harassment, DOL and DHS representatives should explain the client’s rights, that if the company does not have a contractual employment relationship with the individual they cannot lawfully hold them in professional bondage…

In situations where managers or general employees of companies are shown to have committed or are committing heinous acts, including hiring contract killers or providing incentives to clients’ health care providers or pharmacists, or others to murder or torture them or close members of their families or their friends or other acquaintances, DHS and DOL should involve relevant law enforcement authorities and offer other forms of reasonable protections to clients…    

Clients should not have to take legal actions if their rights are found to have been violated in any way because DOL and DHS interventions, which would serve as warnings to found violators, should prove effective. Clients wouldn’t necessarily have to know all of the details of said investigations. They should only feel the difference in how they are treated by employment prospects and upon re-entry into the workforce…