Is this racism/legal?

I-W

The question on if racist or discrimination I would say is down to the recruitment process.

Many small businesses and even a few bigger retail chains will initially ask existing staff if they know anyone to fill low skill roles if only a few coming up, rather than going to the trouble and expense of advertising. Generally ethnic minority and immigrants groups are more close knit, and more likely to know others looking for work (especially recent immigrants).

The unintentional result of this can lead to small businesses being staffed solely by one ethnic minority group, and although not being officially the case, in effect being a closed shop. Near where I live there are a number of shops which are each served by solely one ethnic minority group (different groups in different shops).

While I don't believe this is racist or illegal in itself, it certainly doesn't led to greater integration (in my workplace there are a group from a particular ethnic minority who do what is required of them to communicate for the job, but otherwise talk solely to each other in their own language), however I don't know what solutions people can suggest beyond rather draconian laws on advertising new jobs.

Bobcrowther

duchy wrote: »

It would be illegal for you to object to the company using staff of one race/colour/sex/sexual preference .

Why do you care so long as the job is done ?
I've worked in offices where everyone was white English, others that were a mix of nationalities and hues.....and one where every other member of staff and all the directors were gay.

You could ask your HR department - but I suspect all you'd achieve is having your card marked as a bigot or racist which might not end well.

I was in no way being racist or derogatory, and indeed, your response says far more about your opinions than it does mine. I'd also look up the actual meaning of the word "bigot" if I were you.

To quickly answer some of the other queries - the employees in question are not from the UK - indeed as far as I can tell, they don't speak much English, if at all. The task they are employed to perform is basic and non menial, and requires only an ability to count.
There is no reason that I can see that the company employing these people has for excluding all other races and ethnicities.
If a company were to employ, for example, 100% white people from the UK, that may be understandable as the majority of the available workforce in this country will be of a white background.
These employees make up less than 1% of the population of this country and I was simply wondering how a company could get away with being so blatantly exclusionary.

HappyMJ

Bobcrowther wrote: »

Couldn't find a better subforum than this one to post in, apologies if it's in the wrong place.

A company who is subcontracted to perform a certain task in my workplace on a temporary basis every year brings in their own (temporary) staff. Every single one of them is of a specific ethnic origin. I don't, per se, have an issue with this, but I'm just wondering if its legal to recruit from a single ethnicity to the detriment of others?

I should add, there's no practical reason for this, any other ethnicity could perform this task just as well.

Maybe the people from the specific ethnic origin are here looking for temporary work to earn some money and go back to their home countries with. Maybe they don't want permanent work as they have little intention of settling down.

Savvy_Sue

Bobcrowther wrote: »

There is no reason that I can see that the company employing these people has for excluding all other races and ethnicities.
If a company were to employ, for example, 100% white people from the UK, that may be understandable as the majority of the available workforce in this country will be of a white background.
These employees make up less than 1% of the population of this country and I was simply wondering how a company could get away with being so blatantly exclusionary.

But you don't know that there is active EXclusion. All you can see is that there is limited or no INclusion. Which is not necessarily discriminatory!

Is it even a UK company?

Bobcrowther

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

But you don't know that there is active EXclusion. All you can see is that there is limited or no INclusion. Which is not necessarily discriminatory!

Is it even a UK company?

You're right, I don't know if there is intent at all hence why I'm asking the question. It is indeed a UK company who pay taxes and have a registered office here.

From the answers given here it would seem that I would be able to set up a company staffed entirely with white males without issue.
Thanks for your answers folks.

dacouch

Bobcrowther wrote: »

Thanks for the answers.
Seems a bit odd, in this day of Political Correctness and discrimination laws, that an employer can employ upwards of fifty people who are all from the same country, especially when that country isnt this one.
Interesting nonetheless.

Similar to a lot of expats who start companies when they move to Spain etc. They tend to employ their own nationality.

Savvy_Sue

Bobcrowther wrote: »

From the answers given here it would seem that I would be able to set up a company staffed entirely with white males without issue.

I'm sure you could, although why you'd want to is beyond me. What you could NOT (legally) do is advertise for white males, nor take one look at any women who get through the filter to interview and say "sorry babe, didn't realise you weren't a man, no point asking you any questions, head back to the kitchen sink".

iammumtoone

TELLIT01 wrote: »

I know there were problems in my home area with recruitment agencies who only recruited staff from eastern Europe. If an agency had attempted to restrict recruitment to UK nationals the authorities would have been down on them like a ton of bricks.
If any employer has a large workforce all from one nation, other than the host nation, it should raise questions of discrimination at the very least. There may be a perfectly valid reason, but the questions should be asked.

I work for a company that employs at least 90% from eastern europe, they come from agencies like you describe and work under agency rules (ie no guarantee of work, they can be let go as and when). Every year the company has a recruitment drive where they target out of work British, they employ these people (direct not through an agency so they have more rights), The British workers never stay, they never last more than a month, the work is boring and in a harsh environment. That is why some companies prefer to employ eastern europeans they actually want and are prepared to do the work the British won't. .

Bobcrowther

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

I'm sure you could, although why you'd want to is beyond me. What you could NOT (legally) do is advertise for white males, nor take one look at any women who get through the filter to interview and say "sorry babe, didn't realise you weren't a man, no point asking you any questions, head back to the kitchen sink".

By implication, though, what you could do is simply advertise and interview as normal and simply "pick" those who confirmed to a given racial profile regardless of qualifications or ability.
Whilst I don't believe government should be involving itself in the recruitment practice's of SMEs and larger, I must say that it still seems immoral that one can simply employ in this manner.
Ho hum, up to them.

Savvy_Sue

Bobcrowther wrote: »

By implication, though, what you could do is simply advertise and interview as normal and simply "pick" those who confirmed to a given racial profile regardless of qualifications or ability.
Whilst I don't believe government should be involving itself in the recruitment practice's of SMEs and larger, I must say that it still seems immoral that one can simply employ in this manner.
Ho hum, up to them.

Of course you could do this. Indeed, it happens, almost by default. Interviewing is not an exact science: even on a scoring system we tend to bias towards 'people like us' (in my case grumpy old women - last set of interviews I remember doing I was completely freaked out by the relentless cheerfulness of one applicant!)

However, if you end up with an all-white, all-male staff team, expect people like you to wonder how you're getting away with it!