Staff and wire reports in the Greensboro News & Record say the City of Greensboro has been named in an American Civil Liberties Union complaint alleging Facebook ads recruiting potential employees—in Greensboro’s case police officers—were discriminatory:
In one of the ads in the complaint, the city of Greensboro is advertising jobs at the Greensboro Police Department. The ad shows a photo of two policemen with the Greensboro skyline in the background and says the department is hiring “year round” with a starting salary of $38,222. The ad placed by the city was targeted to “men ages 25 to 35 who live or were recently near Philadelphia.” Such targeting information is available to Facebook users when they click on “why am I seeing this” on a drop-down menu on the ad.
“The City of Greensboro is an equal opportunity employer that seeks to have a diverse workforce, reflective of the community it serves,” the city said in a written statement. “This organization uses multiple techniques to broaden opportunities for applying and encourages diversity within our workforce. We will not accept generalized accusations that represent anything less than that.”
According to the N&R article, the complaint was filed by three women living in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois who “allegedly were not shown ads for jobs in traditionally male-dominated fields, even though they appeared qualified for those positions.” For its part, the Greensboro issued a statement saying the city “is an equal opportunity employer that seeks to have a diverse workforce, reflective of the community it serves….“This organization uses multiple techniques to broaden opportunities for applying and encourages diversity within our workforce. We will not accept generalized accusations that represent anything less than that.”
