Scenario: A job applicant has applied for a job at the employer. The employer is very impressed with the applicant at the first job interview. The applicant is called in for the second part of the recruitment process, which is psychometric testing. This involves a variety of tests including skills ability tests, IQ tests and emotional readiness tests.
After the assessments, the employer turns the application down because the job applicant did not score high enough on the tests for the employer’s requirements. The job applicant takes the employer to the CCMA as he feels the employer has unfairly discriminated against him.
How would the CCMA rule such a case and what consequences are involved?
An employer cannot turn down a job application because the applicant failed a psychometric test.
While such tests are not automatically prohibited, an employer may not use any of them to assess job candidates unless the tests have been officially validated by the Professional Board for Psychology. Any employer wishing to use such tests would have to submit them to the Board first for a validity assessment. The Professional Board for Psychology can be contacted on (012) 338 9300.
Note: An employer cannot turn down a job application because the applicant failed a psychometric test. That discriminates against the applicant’s population group. An IQ test developed in Europe has to take African culture into account and would have to be assessed for validity before use in South Africa.
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