Length of assignment – 1 ½ pages (12 font size, 1 ½ space)
Wole Okri is the owner of a large apple orchard and hires about 50 young employees each season to work for him on a part-time basis to pick apples in his outdoor operation. During the past few weeks he has noticed a suspicious smell lingering around his orchard, which is recognizes as smoke from marijuana. Because the apple pickers are required to climb high ladders and drive trucks with wagons full of apples, the orchard has a zero tolerance policy for drugs and alcohol. The use of such substances could lead to serious injury.
Wole has no idea where to begin a search for suspects but the smell is stronger during and just after break times and in the area where his workers gather to rest during breaks and between shifts. Can Wole simply notify each of his employees that they will all be required to submit to a drug test to determine who has been smoking the marijuana, or should he figure out some way to narrow down the number of “suspects” and then use the drug test only as a means of confirmation of suspicion? How could he narrow down the number?
In addition, Wole has not yet purchased computerized checkout scanners for his large retail outlet where he sells apples and other local products to the public. Therefore all of the product prices must be input by hand to the store registers. Wole has found in the past that certain employees are able to perform this task at a much more rapid pace than others.
To maintain store efficiency, he decides to test all applicants relating to their ability to input prices into the register. After administering an on-site timed test, he finds that 12 white applicants, 2 black applicants, and 1 Hispanic applicant are represented among the top 15 performers, in that order of performance. Wole has five positions available. Will he be subject to liability for disparate impact discrimination if he proceeds to hire the five top performers, all of whom are white?