Discrimination within recruitment

Last week I applied for a job via a Recruiter. They rang me on Tuesday and we had a discussion about the role and my experience, I also mentioned my personal situation that I had taken time out of work to care for my daughter, I then received a further call and they said that their client would like to see me and gave me a date and time for an interview which would have been next Tuesday.

This morning I received a phone call saying the client had changed their mind, gave excuses that I wouldn't be able to provide work references for the period and they were adamant that it had to be work references.

Now I am thinking is a returner to work being discriminated against, if the RTW was female wouldn't this be covered by sex discrimination? So if we bring in the Equality Act into this, hasn't the Recruiter and the client (Employer) made an enormous error?

It looks very much like indirect discrimination, an Employment Tribunal could award anywhere between £2000 and £6000, that itself.does not sound like a large amount but that will be coming out of someone's budget. People say to me, "wow you have had a lucky escape" but that isn't the point, this is the second time within a month that I have had discrimination, last I let it fly, it does make you wonder about the calibre of HR professionals that they treat candidates with such contempt.

You need to be a member of DPG Community to add comments!

Join DPG Community

Email me when people reply –

Replies

  • Hi Paul

    Sounds like you have had an unpleasant experience.  In the first instance you may wish to contact ACAS and they can advise you on the merits of your case.  Also the next steps should you wish to pursue this.

    I also think that in this scenario I would be tempted to identify who is their internal HR and make contact direclty.  In my experience it is often the csae they may not realise the messages that line managers are providing to the agency.  I am sure if you contact them and explain the situation they will look into this.  I have dealt with similar cases with success where I have liaised direclty with HR and politley pointed out the issue and then this has been resolved without recourse to making claims, where ultimately nobody wins, in terms of stress for you and cost to the business.

    Good Luck!

    Sarah

This reply was deleted.

Members

Click here to see a full list of members including our Facilitators.

Did you know that if you go to the list of members, the Members Online button will show you who is online right now? Why not say hello?

What's Happening?

More…

CIPD Branch Events

Did you know your local CIPD branch will put on relevant events that are free to CIPD members.

Take a look for your local branch here and what events are happening. Remember attending these events are great CPD evidence.

CIPD Branch Event Search