ABSTRACT
This chapter examines argument arising from claims that policies or practices are discriminatory in effect regardless of the presence or absence of discriminatory intent. Like the traditional model, the claimant's argument in the impact model is premised on a claim about subjective merit. Since the mid-20th century, there have been increasing numbers of claims alleging discriminatory impact. In these claims, it is asserted that, even if the respondent did not intend to discriminate, its policies or practices have had a discriminatory effect, by unduly disadvantaging some sector of the population. A group of cannery workers brought the complaint, alleging that the canneries' hiring practices for noncannery positions discriminated against non-whites. A number of claims have been brought in Swiss cantons involving complaints of discrimination in fire fighting departments. Preferential hiring of men has been defended, in part, on the basis of prima facie neutral criteria of comparatively greater physical size of men.
