An insurance company’s catching flack for judging job candidates not by their experience or education, but by their zodiac sign.
When Austria’s Salzberg Insurance Company placed an advertisement listing open sales and management opportunities, people were shocked to see it was only considering applicants born during certain months.
According to the listing, the company was looking for people with the following star signs:
- Aquarius
- Aries
- Capricorn
- Leo, and
- Taurus.
The company performed a statistical analysis of its workers, which revealed the best employees in Austria had one of the five star signs.
Equality groups began waves of protests, claiming the company was discriminating against certain types of people. But an investigation by Austrian authorities showed there was nothing illegal about screening or choosing employees according to their zodiac signs. Although the company would only look at those with certain astrological signs, all genders, ages, races, etc., could be found within that grouping.
According to authorities, the company’s screening “does appear like a certain limitation, but it is not discrimination.”
