Monday 29 June 2009

"..ain't nothing gonna change, if nobody's gonna wake up and start asking who's in charge.."

While you ponder the reports outlining Labour’s intention to keep spending until we are utterly ruined, bear in mind what a valuable job some of those government servants are doing:
Civil servants have sent out thousands of bogus job applications to businesses in an effort to expose racism.
Wondering just how?

Read on:
The applications were written with false identities to see whether firms were unfairly rejecting jobhunters with foreign-sounding names.

Solicitor General Vera Baird said initial results suggested 'there was quite a strong sense that there is race discrimination going on'.
Well, of course. Did you really expect anyone to say ‘Nope! Looks like everything’s just fine..’?
Ministers already spend £70million a year on an equality quango, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which is charged with investigating alleged racism among employers.

But the fake job application scheme was devised within the Department of Work and Pensions, the ministry responsible for paying most benefits and trying to get the jobless back into work.
Looks to me as if they’ve given up on that vital task, if they have time to mess about with this kind of nonsense…
Officials conducted the exercise by putting in two or more applications for each of 1,000 job vacancies.

CVs would be similar, but the applications would be signed either with a traditional British name or one that looked as if it belonged to an applicant from an ethnic minority.
Based purely on the name? With today’s level of mixed marriages, and underclass-naming conventions?

Yeah, that’s a rigorous scientific procedure, all right…
Miss Baird, who is in charge of pushing Deputy Labour Leader Harriet Harman's Equality Bill through the Commons, has said the research could lead to an addition to the Bill banning employers from asking for names from applicants before they offer an interview.

Such a ban, she said, would also help women overcome discrimination from employers.
*sigh*

Is there no limit to this government’s inexhaustible supply of Ministerial idiocy…?
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10 comments:

  1. Macheath29 June 2009 at 17:53

    To save money at the DWP and the EHRC, why not enlist a team of experts in applied psychology to study discrimination in job applications? This wouldn't take up all their time, so they could also take on the task of training future psychologists.

    We could give them a place to fulfil their dual role as researchers and educators; this education venue would need a catchy name that conveys its accessibility... such as...er..I've got it - University!

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  2. Von Spreuth.29 June 2009 at 17:56

    an addition to the Bill banning employers from asking for names from applicants before they offer an interview.

    So...hmm you MAY have thought of this, but HOW are the interview invites meant to get to the applicant?

    "Left under the big oak tree in the park to be pickled up later"?

    "Mr X at 23 'av'nt a clue drive, somewhere in Britain" (Because we all know that firms discriminate against applicants addresses). Force ALL appliicants to wear a burk-her until employed?

    Von Brandenburg-Preußen.

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  3. JuliaM29 June 2009 at 18:02

    "..a catchy name that conveys its accessibility... such as...er..I've got it - University!"

    Lol!

    "..HOW are the interview invites meant to get to the applicant?"

    Oh, I suspect a new government department to be set up to filter all applicants into an automated numbering system, dispense them to the companies, then receive them back and match them up. On index linked pensions, natch.

    Simples! ;)

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  4. DC29 June 2009 at 18:26

    I wonder what the results would be if you filled the applications in with proper chav names innit.

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  5. JuliaM29 June 2009 at 18:39

    And how would they be different from a certain sector of 'ethnic minority' names...?

    In fact, whch came first?!

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  6. James Higham29 June 2009 at 19:25

    They know they're gone. they'll do the maximum damage before the end.

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  7. Von Spreuth.29 June 2009 at 19:32

    James Higham said...

    They know they're gone. they'll do the maximum damage before the end.

    Hitler/Berlin
    Brown/Britain.

    Von Brandenburg-Preußen.

    ReplyDelete
  8. North Northwester29 June 2009 at 20:25

    the ministry responsible for paying most benefits and trying to get the jobless back into work.

    The devil's in the detail.


    "responsible"
    "trying"

    Sigh.

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  9. Macheath29 June 2009 at 21:22

    'a certain sector of 'ethnic minority' names'

    I thoroughly recommend Levitt and Dubner's Freakonomics, which makes the following point:

    'If DeShawn Williams and Jake Williams send identical resumes, Jake would be more likely to get a call back...Was [DeShawn] rejected because he is black? Or because "DeShawn" sounds like someone from a low-income, low-education family?...Such studies are tantalizing but severely limited.'

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  10. JimmyGiro29 June 2009 at 21:28

    Here is a 12 minute recording of the end of my job interview at the local DWP JobCentre Plus, where I question them about their equality and diversity practices, especially since they employ over 85% women.

    ReplyDelete