Morrisons jobs

rb1

Hi
My daughter is 18 and has been asking at our local Morrisons if they have any student jobs for the last year or so and has repeatedly been told no. Fed up with this answer after spotting what are obviously new people being trained, my husband collared the manager last weekend and asked him. His answer- they weren't advertising any vacancies as they knew they'd get too many applicants and so they had offerred the jobs to relatives of current employees and had recently taken on 15!!!! A further question from my husband about what chance you had if you didn't have a relative who worked there was 'none' . I want to report this but don't know whether to go to the CEO at Morrisons or the Equal Opps Commission. What do you think?

~Beanie~

I'm not sure either would do any good, they are entitled to employ who they like and whilst it might not seem fair, there is no law against what they are doing.

Maybe your daughter should have sent in a speculative CV instead of asking verbally?

rb1

Are you sure? I always understood any employment vacancies should be advertised under the equal opportunities rule.
She has handed in so many CVs to places it's soul destroying. It is of course 'who you know'... as usual. it's hard to explain the nepotism that companies practice to a naive 18 year old job hunter.

olias

Sorry, but in my experience I would seriously say that at least 75% of job vacancies are filled on the basis of 'word of mouth' and 'it's not what you know, but who you know'. It's the way of the world. i would suggets that your daughter takes this on as a lesson in the importance of making and keeping contacts/networking etc etc (can't stand it myself, but you have to be realistic!) Good luck to her though.

Olias

LittleVoice

Here's a link to Morrisons application form - http://www.morrisons.co.uk/Documents/EA(2).pdf

If your daughter had a disability, there would be a guarantee of an interview if she met the minimum requirements.

Worth contacting Head Office if she could travel to another branch perhaps?

rb1

As the manager said she'd no chance as we don't have a relative working at Morrisons what's the point in filling in forms etc. Waste of time. I'm pretty sure most of the other forms that have been handed in to shops went straight in the bin as she's never heard a word- Boots, Sainsbury's, New Look etc. And that's with 10 GCSEs and 3 good A levels(pending). She's now on a gap year trying to earn some money for Uni. It's hard enough in the current climate but doubly hard when you know it's not a level playing field.
Her friend was told she was overqualified for a shop job and the other workers wouldn't like it- more discrimination.

LottieB

In the current situation a lot of employers can demand retail experience. The jobs are probably going to people who have worked in shops for years, and need to feed families, rather than kids who want beer money. It might be worth going into recruitment agencies for office junior jobs. I fail to see how an A level would make her over qualified for a shop job, surely someone who has worked for 5 years in a shop would be more qualified?! If she has a 'I'm too good for this' attitude she won't get anywhere. And I'm sure people who had retail experience for years and years would be a bit miffed if kids with paper qualifications rather than experience were getting the jobs they wanted - that's when things would be unfair in my opinion!

Another option might be to go to local hospitals, private rather than NHS, and ask if she can work on their bank for healthcare assistants. It's a rubbish job, but my local hospital is crying out for people.

paulwf

The simple problem is this: most high street retailers currently have a complete freeze on recruitment, and the ones that don't are getting 100 applicants per job.

Most shops employ lots of people on short hours contracts. If they are busy in the summer they can just give more hours to all the staff that are on holiday from school/college/uni.

It really isn't worth sifting through thousands of applicants to fill standard customer assistant jobs when you can fill them internally.

Hermia

I think in the current climate it's just very hard to get any jobs. I personally wouldn't bother taking it further and instead get your daughter to work on her CV (could she do some voluntary work in a shop to get some retail experience?) and try every avenue.

Can I also suggest that you have a word with your husband about his actions? We take on a lot of school-leavers and students where I work and a parent getting involved like this would totally scupper the kid's chances. We do have parents who ring up and ask for the application form and then ring up again to ask about an interview etc. We also have parents who ring up or come in demanding to know why their child hasn't got the job. We do not give a job to the kid if this happens. Firstly, because if they don't have the confidence to phone us up or fight their own battles then we wonder how they will possibly cope with dealing with the public. Secondly we don't want to take on someone whose mum or dad will blame us if their son or daughter is dismissed or has a bad appraisal.

rb1

Thanks everyone but I just feel depressed by these answers. I know you're reflecting the real world but that doesn't make it ok.

dmg24

I think you are getting confused between discrimination and a company using a limited selection procedure. I cannot see any evidence of discrimination, but more a case that the employer has decided to limit the potential number of applicants.