application form questions re religion and sexual orientation

withabix

wishface wrote: »

if a person is filling in a form then not revealing their race, or sex or whatever then there can be no potential for such discrimination. So why ask? No employer should ever have the right to ask for someone's sexuality and i'd walk if any ever did. It's beyond the pale.

Believe me, employers don't WANT to ask these questions. They are now required to by law, to comply with various <insert choice of name here> Discrimination Acts.

Blame the spinning loony Labour government for this.

onlyforboards_2

maninthestreet wrote: »

No it's not just you. These are exactly the questions that the Nazis demanded answers from their own population and populations of countries they subjugated.

Lol, we go from nanny state to Nazis in just a couple of steps.
Is the form anonymous op, you do not make that clear?

Desperate_Housewife_2-2

onlyforboards wrote: »

Lol, we go from nanny state to Nazis in just a couple of steps.
Is the form anonymous op, you do not make that clear?

no, its on the application form that you submit for the job

onlyforboards_2

Desperate_Housewife wrote: »

no, its on the application form that you submit for the job

Does the job require working with people of a particular sexuality,or within a particular church group? There have been several cases of discrimination based on sexuality recently so I am surprised that this is asked without there being a particular reason for exemption from sexual discrimination laws. You'll find the nanny state will protect you if you do face this kind of discrimination.

Debt_Free_Chick

wishface wrote: »

if a person is filling in a form then not revealing their race, or sex or whatever then there can be no potential for such discrimination. So why ask? No employer should ever have the right to ask for someone's sexuality and i'd walk if any ever did. It's beyond the pale.

So when we appoint a white anglo-saxon male, how do we prove that we did not discriminate against anyone else

I agree with you - but employers are being asked to "prove a negative"

seven-day-weekend

If employers are supposed to consider people regardless of these things, then it is not necessary to ask them (although I suppose they can sometimes tell what ethnic group somebody belongs to by their name).

I suppose though that they do these days have to have a form to prove that they considered an applications from various ethnic groups.

But how would you know about someone's sexual orientation unless they tell you in one way or another? I don't see any need to ask that one, nor about religion.

And what if only WASP straight males without a disability apply? Are they supposed to drag other people in from the streets?

seven-day-weekend

I can remember my son's infant school advertising for a teacher and only white females applied. One person on the Friends' Committee was very vocal about they should be interviewing people from ethnic minorities. But what do you do if they don't apply? I don't know what the person expected the school to do about it.

This was an inner-city school with a black Head Teacher and a large ethnic minority intake.

Savvy_Sue

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

But what do you do if they don't apply? I don't know what the person expected the school to do about it.

One thing you do is consider whether you are advertising in the 'right' places to attract a diverse field of applicants. Obviously with teachers there are certain places where everyone interested should know to look, but with other organisations it's wise to consider this.

For example, we are a charity, and we always advertise on the local Voluntary Service Council website, which includes a wide range of groups who might traditionally have been under-represented in employment. If our Equal Ops monitoring forms indicated that we were only getting applications from white people, it would be time to consider advertising elsewhere.

Desperate Housewife, we detach one page of our form and it's not seen by the selection panel, so they don't have any personal details, just job history and qualifications etc. If your form was like this, then I don't think it can be seen as discriminatory, but if that information was to be available at the selection stage, I'd think it a pretty poor show. As I said, we ask for the information, but it's on a completely separate and anonymous form.

Debt_Free_Chick

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

I can remember my son's infant school advertising for a teacher and only white females applied.

And presumably, the only reason they knew that all the applicants were white females, is because the application form asked for this information!

LittleVoice

Debt_Free_Chick wrote: »

And presumably, the only reason they knew that all the applicants were white females, is because the application form asked for this information!

Or because all applicants were interviewed