03-03-2005, 07:40 PM
Final Answer:
Was checking out Jerry Pournelle's web site, and ran across this snippet:
Subject: Prostitution and unemployment benefits in Germany
I may have a bit more information on the issue of the German waitress who had her unemployment benefits cut because she wouldn't take a job as a prostitute. I ran into a German legal academic at a conference in Edinburgh who assured me that the incident had happened, and provided the following explanation. The German electronic job bank is linked to the database of unemployment benefit recipients, who are required to provide information about their prior job experience. An algorithm is used to match unemployment benefit recipients with new job postings according the job characteristics described by the employer. The entrepreneurial brothel owner mentioned in an earlier e-mail was apparently the first brothel owner to use the system and when she did the algorithm matched the job to the waitress. A letter was then automatically generated informing her of the opportunity. There is a box to check to accept or decline the job on a form which must be returned. When she declined, the system automatically cut her benefits. To this point everything happened without human intervention. She then complained to human authorities who immediately recognized the match as an error and reinstated her benefits. This expains why the incident didn't generate much press -- it represented a technical system design problem and not a policy decision. Apparently the algorithm was also tweaked to avoid this kind of match in the future.
Norman Siebrasse Faculty of Law University of New Brunswick
Looks as though "the rest of the story" clears up the man against the machine matter.
HAL, would you please go back to circling Uranus?
Occhi
Was checking out Jerry Pournelle's web site, and ran across this snippet:
Subject: Prostitution and unemployment benefits in Germany
I may have a bit more information on the issue of the German waitress who had her unemployment benefits cut because she wouldn't take a job as a prostitute. I ran into a German legal academic at a conference in Edinburgh who assured me that the incident had happened, and provided the following explanation. The German electronic job bank is linked to the database of unemployment benefit recipients, who are required to provide information about their prior job experience. An algorithm is used to match unemployment benefit recipients with new job postings according the job characteristics described by the employer. The entrepreneurial brothel owner mentioned in an earlier e-mail was apparently the first brothel owner to use the system and when she did the algorithm matched the job to the waitress. A letter was then automatically generated informing her of the opportunity. There is a box to check to accept or decline the job on a form which must be returned. When she declined, the system automatically cut her benefits. To this point everything happened without human intervention. She then complained to human authorities who immediately recognized the match as an error and reinstated her benefits. This expains why the incident didn't generate much press -- it represented a technical system design problem and not a policy decision. Apparently the algorithm was also tweaked to avoid this kind of match in the future.
Norman Siebrasse Faculty of Law University of New Brunswick
Looks as though "the rest of the story" clears up the man against the machine matter.
HAL, would you please go back to circling Uranus?
Occhi
Cry 'Havoc' and let slip the Men 'O War!
In War, the outcome is never final. --Carl von Clausewitz--
Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum
John 11:35 - consider why.
In Memory of Pete
In War, the outcome is never final. --Carl von Clausewitz--
Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum
John 11:35 - consider why.
In Memory of Pete