Avon breaking Equality Act?

wantsajob

There's an Avon advert currently running on TV, which suggests to be an Avon representative that you must be female. Being a self-employed arrangement, does this mean they can flout the Equality Act legislation, which supposedly protects against discrimination based on sex?

ILW

Where does it say you must be female?

wantsajob

The female in the advert, the voice over which states "women" numerous times. If an employer put a job advert out there specifying women only need apply, without an exemption under the equality act, they'd rightly get spanked.

heretolearn_2

How does it suggest that?

One of my local Avon ladies is a man :-)

wantsajob

heretolearn wrote: »

One of my local Avon ladies is a man :-)

Well obviously it's in Avon's interest to take on people whatever they are, as at the end of the day the risk is put on the person working for them as it is self-employed. Whatever they make, Avon get's their cut, and as it's self-employed there's no obligations under minimum wage legislation. Still the advert mentions "women" numerous times, and if Asda/Tesco/Morrisons put the word "Woman" in a job advertisement once, they'd be shot at high noon.

Googlewhacker

Wants- I appreciate you are job hunting very hard under difficult circumstances but its not helpful for you to keep coming on here looking at any angle of discrimination you can possibly find. It just seems you are wasting valuable energy when you could be using it for positive action.

xbrenx

The companies that advertise on tv go through a lot of checks to make sure they've got every angle covered in terms of not breaking the law and such like.
However, every now and then an advert will slip through the net, someone will find exception to it that wasn't picked up early enough. (grrrr I can't even think of any examples).

I haven't seen the advert in question but if you believe it's unlawful you can put in an official complaint to the Advertising Standards Agency.

Hope that helps.

Jarndyce

xbrenx wrote: »

The companies that advertise on tv go through a lot of checks to make sure they've got every angle covered in terms of not breaking the law and such like.
However, every now and then an advert will slip through the net, someone will find exception to it that wasn't picked up early enough. (grrrr I can't even think of any examples).

I haven't seen the advert in question but if you believe it's unlawful you can put in an official complaint to the Advertising Standards Agency.

Hope that helps.

It won't help him because it won't get him any compensation.

imatt

Errrrr....I did Avon years ago, and I am male! I did have reservations at first because Avon IS a female oriented company after all. I stuck at it for 2 or 3 months though. Had to pack it in though as it paid little for the area I could reasonably cover without a car or motorcycle. I also got a better offer as well!

Acc72

wantsajob wrote: »

There's an Avon advert currently running on TV, which suggests to be an Avon representative that you must be female. Being a self-employed arrangement, does this mean they can flout the Equality Act legislation, which supposedly protects against discrimination based on sex?

For somebody who appears to advocate precision, why are you showing only a selected element of the comment made by Jeremy Clarkson in your signature ?

katerinasol

I would say it's targeted at women more because I personally can't imagine many men wanting to sell make-up?