Volvo Fined for refusing to Hire Short Woman

[Bono]

www.sr.se/cgi-bin/International/nyhetssidor/artikel.asp?ProgramID=2054&Nyheter=&artikel=697842

A Swedish labour court has fined Volvo Cars $5,228 in damages for refusing a woman a job on an assembly line on the grounds she was too short at 160 cm.

The then 27 year old woman applied for a job at a Volvo car plant in Gothenburg three years ago to be told assembly line workers must be between 163 and 195 cm tall for safety reasons.

The ruling said that while Volvo was not discriminating against women on purpose, in practice a quarter to a third of all women in Sweden would not qualify to work there.

A spokesman for Volvo has said that the company will review their hiring routines, adding that it is clear that the height requirement they have had for four years will be removed.

[Blue Rectangle]

In the U.S., Volvo would have had a much better chance at winning in court.

However, in the U.S. Volvo would have had to pay about 1000 times more had they lost.

[Alcon]

Unless that's Swedish money and Swedish money is radically different, then that's petty cash.

It's still stupid, but in this case I'm inclined to believe it's more of a stupid judge than stupid laws.  But who knows.

In any case, it's dumb, but I can hardly cry over $3,500.

[Bono]

Unless that's Swedish money and Swedish money is radically different, then that's petty cash.

It's still stupid, but in this case I'm inclined to believe it's more of a stupid judge than stupid laws.  But who knows.

In any case, it's dumb, but I can hardly cry over $3,500.

$5,228. You having reading problems?

[John Dibble]

Unless that's Swedish money and Swedish money is radically different, then that's petty cash.

It's still stupid, but in this case I'm inclined to believe it's more of a stupid judge than stupid laws.  But who knows.

In any case, it's dumb, but I can hardly cry over $3,500.

$5,228. You having reading problems?

He probably meant $5,300, bad rounding and a typo.