Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
B&H Strong armed to pay $3.2 million to workers who were "discriminated against"!
In Defense of B&H
$3.3 million is colossal, but is it justified?
Do we check on the warehouse promotion practices of other major internet superstores? Do we really check the promotion or workplace practices of manufacturors in Asia? Not really!
B&H is perhaps the most reliable and helpful major camera retailer in the USA. I have purchased from them for years. I have extensive experience with their treatment of customers when things go wrong as they rarely do. They have always behaved in a responsive and courteous manner. B&H provides the lowest prices to photographers and needs to handle a massive inventory. If they tend to hire Hispanics preferentially for starter jobs, that is very smart. In my experience, as new Americans, this group works harder, has a great spirit, are family orientated, honest and reliable. It makes sense to help them with a work entry job and the company "esprit de corps" benefits and the workers now have a great job on their resume that arms them for getting an even better job.
Another company might want Asians for some characteristic that they seem to be enriched for. The employer should have that right. If I was hiring nurses I would want folk from the Caribbean Islands. They are the kindest. It is nonsense to dismiss instinct one has as a buisinessman!
The most significant fact is that B&H gives folk a chance at entering the workplace with a solid job. So they don't give an easy chance to advance. Why do they have to. To me this limitation should be specified on hiring: this is a fixed position and for as long as you can do the job and we need you, you have a job!
If I hire a maid, I have no duty to promote her to be my executive assistant.
This lawsuit seems to me to be overblown and hardly justified. B&H is not the armed services. This is a private company and bullying them is misguided! They should get an award for providing so many jobs!
Asher
In Defense of B&H
$3.3 million is colossal, but is it justified?
Do we check on the warehouse promotion practices of other major internet superstores? Do we really check the promotion or workplace practices of manufacturors in Asia? Not really!
B&H is perhaps the most reliable and helpful major camera retailer in the USA. I have purchased from them for years. I have extensive experience with their treatment of customers when things go wrong as they rarely do. They have always behaved in a responsive and courteous manner. B&H provides the lowest prices to photographers and needs to handle a massive inventory. If they tend to hire Hispanics preferentially for starter jobs, that is very smart. In my experience, as new Americans, this group works harder, has a great spirit, are family orientated, honest and reliable. It makes sense to help them with a work entry job and the company "esprit de corps" benefits and the workers now have a great job on their resume that arms them for getting an even better job.
Another company might want Asians for some characteristic that they seem to be enriched for. The employer should have that right. If I was hiring nurses I would want folk from the Caribbean Islands. They are the kindest. It is nonsense to dismiss instinct one has as a buisinessman!
The most significant fact is that B&H gives folk a chance at entering the workplace with a solid job. So they don't give an easy chance to advance. Why do they have to. To me this limitation should be specified on hiring: this is a fixed position and for as long as you can do the job and we need you, you have a job!
If I hire a maid, I have no duty to promote her to be my executive assistant.
This lawsuit seems to me to be overblown and hardly justified. B&H is not the armed services. This is a private company and bullying them is misguided! They should get an award for providing so many jobs!
Asher
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