Some blue collar jobs requires both a high school diploma and a certification from a skills test to qualify for a certain position. Psychological test are also essential in the labor market to ensure the stability of an organization. However, some test made for blue collar jobs may not be valid because it does not capture adequate psychological information to assess the capacity of an applicant. From a personal experience of a friend, a company requires at least a minimum of college level to qualify for the position of the janitor. Such experience may be discriminating in the aspect of education because janitorial positions main requirement is the physical fitness of the employee for hard labor. The case of Albemarle Paper Co v. Moody is a classic example of another labor dispute that involves plant seniority system, employment testing program and backpay. The court refused to issue an order that backpays or compensation should be given to employees because the plaintiff provide insufficient evidence to prove that the company is in bad faith (http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=case&court=us&vol=422+&page=405, 1975).
The respondents argued that the company practiced racial discrimination against Negroes when Albemarle imposed a testing procedure that determines their general ability. While the District Court's ruling founded Albemarle's general ability testing procedures to be valid since it has undergone several validation studies, the Court of Appeals disagreed to the ruling. That the ruling of the Court District was considered flawed owes to the fact that the test scores were considered to subjective ratings of the employees supervisor. The Court of Appeals emphasized that the test may be only be valid in jobs that require particular skills such as analytical thinking. Further, there was no precise measurement of job performance that will validate the ratings of the supervisor (http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=case&court=us&vol=422+&page=405, 1975).
In light with this issue, certain skills criteria such as the applicant must be on a college level is not a valid selection criteria for a janitorial post. One must not need to study algebra or to be very proficient in language skills to mop floors and sweep the premises. There should be a valid separate standardized test for blue collar jobs that determines if they are mentally fit to perform their task. Questions to evaluate the mental capacity and behavior of and applicant ahould be framed in a way that such does not infringe the competence of the applicant. According to Schmidt (2006) Validity ahould not be taken as an instrument but should also consider psychological adequacy, actionability, and rigour.
References
Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody, 422 U.S. 405 (1975). Retrieved from http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=case&court=us&vol=422+&page=405.
Schmidt, C. (2006). Validity as an Action Concept in IO Psychology. Journal of Industrial Psychology, 32(4), 59-67.
