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Equality Regulations

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markymark2000

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Does any remember about 5 years ago, you were never asked your religion, race, if you had a disability or any other equality questions.

Now, since equality regulations came into place, job applications and consultations etc all now ask optional questions about these things. The point of the equality regulations is to ensure people are not discriminate for a job based on any of the above things yet since then, companies have started asking for it so they can 'monitor' their equality status.

We were never asked about race, religion etc before so now that it is illegal for companies to discriminate you based on these things, they now ask for this information. Though the questions are optional, they are being asked so we are giving companies the information they need to discriminate and so on as a result of the regulations brought in to stop that kind of behavior.

Am I missing something here? The whole thing seems absolutely ridiculous and unnecessary.
 
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Bletchleyite

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It's very common for companies to ask for them on a separate or tear-off part of an application form such that they can be used to produce statistics without influencing individual employment decisions, if that answers your question any?
 

markymark2000

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It's very common for companies to ask for them on a separate or tear-off part of an application form such that they can be used to produce statistics without influencing individual employment decisions, if that answers your question any?
I can't speak for application forms but online applications it is very common. They all say it is for producing stats but we can't prove that. We are giving them the information to discriminate and this came about as a result of the equality at work regulations.

Go back a few years and race, religion, sexual orientation and all that was never asked because it wasn't relevant to the job. If they don't ask, they don't have the information to discriminate.
 

lachlan

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Hey, you're the same person who opposes audio announcements because accesibility is "taking the mic". It's much harder for disabled people to get a job. Taking a small number of disabled people on isn't discrimination.

You already said that you don't have to answer the questions. So don't answer them. There's no problem here.
 

Mag_seven

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Go back a few years and race, religion, sexual orientation and all that was never asked because it wasn't relevant to the job.

Yes and go back a few years and it seemed somewhat strange that the only people who were deemed fit for certainly the top jobs were able bodied, white, Christian, heterosexual men. Nobody else seemed to get a look in.
 
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ABB125

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Hey, you're the same person who opposes audio announcements because accesibility is "taking the mic". It's much harder for disabled people to get a job. Taking a small number of disabled people on isn't discrimination.

You already said that you don't have to answer the questions. So don't answer them. There's no problem here.
If it's much harder for disabled people to get a job, why ask whether they are disabled? If the potential employer doesn't know which applicants have disabilities (or their gender/race/sexual orientation/religion/etc), there is no way they can discriminate against anyone.
 

sprunt

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If it's much harder for disabled people to get a job, why ask whether they are disabled? If the potential employer doesn't know which applicants have disabilities (or their gender/race/sexual orientation/religion/etc), there is no way they can discriminate against anyone.

Until they interview them.

These numbers are used not to monitor who gets the jobs - as mentioned above, they should be separated from application forms before the application forms are looked at - but to monitor who applies for them. A reputable employer will recognise that gender/race/sexuality etc will have no bearing on a person's ability to do a job, and as such if fewer people from a particular group are applying then there's a decent chance that they're missing out on some good people, and they can try and find out why and do something about it.
 

DarloRich

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Go back a few years and race, religion, sexual orientation and all that was never asked because it wasn't relevant to the job. If they don't ask, they don't have the information to discriminate.

It helps identify if you may need any extra support in the work place. As a recruiting manager I see some of this and it is very helpful .

Yes and go back a few years and it seemed somewhat strange that the only people who were deemed fit for certainly the top jobs were able bodied, white, Christian, heterosexual men. Nobody else seemed to get a look in.

a much better world. None of this snowflakey namby pamby nonsense
 

PeterC

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It has been going on for a lot more than five years.

All this docuementation is done with the best of intentions but it just takes a change of government to turn it into an easily accesible catalogue of "undesirables".
 

Gemz91

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Iv'e been applying for jobs for at least 15 years now and can always remember filling in a section about race, religion and sexuality. I even remember having an interview ten years ago at an ice skating rink and being asked how I would deal with a customer who was an ethnic minority.
 

GusB

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Iv'e been applying for jobs for at least 15 years now and can always remember filling in a section about race, religion and sexuality. I even remember having an interview ten years ago at an ice skating rink and being asked how I would deal with a customer who was an ethnic minority.
Add another 10 years to that at least. I was applying for jobs from around 1994 and I don't recall filling out any job application that didn't have an equal opportunities section. In some cases it was a tear-off page at the back of the form that was supposed to be anonymous, while in others it was a completely separate form that went into a special envelope. What exactly is done with that information will vary between organisations.

Back in the early days of my career, it was usually questions about race/ethnic origin and disabilities - it was only later on that questions were asked about sexual orientation, and I have to say that I did feel slightly uncomfortable with that (I'd rather not say because it's not your business). Equal opportunities monitoring has been going on for much longer than 5 years, though!
 

Terry Tait

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I thought that a job should just go to whoever is going to be best, not a box ticking exercise.
 

TheEdge

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I even remember having an interview ten years ago at an ice skating rink and being asked how I would deal with a customer who was an ethnic minority.

I'm intrigued by that. Can you remember how that question went? Did they push for details?
 

sprunt

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It has been going on for a lot more than five years.

All this docuementation is done with the best of intentions but it just takes a change of government to turn it into an easily accesible catalogue of "undesirables".

How would a form with no identifying details on it serve that purpose?
 

OneOffDave

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I thought that a job should just go to whoever is going to be best, not a box ticking exercise.

That's why those doing the recruitment don't see the equality information from the application. However if your monitoring says that 18% of the people applying for jobs are from minority communities but only 0.5% of the people actually appointed are, then it's probable you've got some kind of bias in your recruiting process and it's only a matter of time before a lawsuit turns up
 

Gemz91

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I'm intrigued by that. Can you remember how that question went? Did they push for details?

Can't remember the exact question. I just remember being surprised, and giving the reply that I wouldn't notice their skin colour so would treat them the same as anyone else. never did get the job, so maybe they though I was a raging racist.
 

plymothian

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Can't remember the exact question. I just remember being surprised, and giving the reply that I wouldn't notice their skin colour so would treat them the same as anyone else. never did get the job, so maybe they though I was a raging racist.

My first thought would have been "I beg your pardon? What does that matter?" and leave it at that.
 

Gemz91

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My first thought would have been "I beg your pardon? What does that matter?" and leave it at that.

I certainly had that tone in my voice. I was quite young and new to the job hunting market at the time, so was quite reserved. If someone asked that question to me now in an interview I'd certainly give a different response.
 

AlterEgo

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Can't remember the exact question. I just remember being surprised, and giving the reply that I wouldn't notice their skin colour so would treat them the same as anyone else. never did get the job, so maybe they though I was a raging racist.

How can you not notice someone’s skin colour?
 
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