Legal for prospective employer to ask about ethnicity?

MCMT

Recently my partner applied for a head office job with a large retailer. In amongst the plethora of inane questions on the online application form, she was asked to define her ethnicity - with options such as White, Black, Asian etc to be ticked.

She was a little taken aback by this, being as she is from a country which would prohibit a prospective employer from actively seeking out information regarding race etc. When she told me I was also pretty surprised (I'm Irish). The company in question is a large multinational and they also appeared to go to great pains to emphasise their equal opportunity employer credentials. My only offering is that they seek race information to demonstrate that they do not discriminate - though I would still find this somewhat unsettling...

So: is it legal in Ireland for prospective employers to seek information regarding ethnicity?

Victor

MCMT wrote: »

My only offering is that they seek race information to demonstrate that they do not discriminate

This.

If they found that 30% of their applicants were from ethnic minorities, but that none of them were being employed, they would then be able to look at their recruitment process to see why applicants were being rejected.

Likewise, if they were only attracting one group as applicants and not others, they could look at howjobs were being advertised and make adjustments.

Delancey

OP - was this retailer a British company by any chance ? I ask because such questions are routinely asked in the UK - employers need to know the ethnicity of staff and applicants so they can ensure they are not indirectly discriminating against certain people.
There is a saying : '' If it can't be measured then it can't be managed ''

Our man in Havana

There would be no obligation to answer such a question.

Cavehill Red

I always write in 'Human Being' in answer to this question.
If challenged later, I point out that the concept of racial ethnicity is a Victorian one which has been thoroughly debunked by modern genetics.
This doesn't constitute advice to others, but frankly, I feel that such questions have feck all to do with your suitability to do a job and if no one answered them, they'd stop asking.

Our man in Havana

Again, it is akin to asking your marital status. That is not the business of any employer.

amen

Again, it is akin to asking your marital status

no its not. It can be asked to ensure the company is not racially biased.

Say I have a branch of a store in a city with 70% black people yet 90% of the my staff were white and 70% of applicants are black. Something wrong there.

Our man in Havana

I would still refuse to answer. It is like those equality monitoring forms you get in the north. I am not telling anyone my religious beliefs.

Cavehill Red

amen wrote: »

no its not. It can be asked to ensure the company is not racially biased.

Say I have a branch of a store in a city with 70% black people yet 90% of the my staff were white and 70% of applicants are black. Something wrong there.

Yes, the hypersensitivity to irrelevant issues like skin colour is what's wrong, assuming you've been hiring on the basis of merit in your hypothetical store.
Let's spin your concern another way - 2% of people in Britain are black, yet nearly 30% of professional footballers are black. Something wrong there? Or maybe they just are the best at the job?
80% or more of firefighters are male. Something wrong there too? Or is it that they're just better suited to the work?
I can understand an employer wanting to know marital status more than skin colour, given that a young married person might be more inclined to be beginning a family, which could impact on their ability to work. But you know, you don't have to tell them.
And there is frankly zero relevance to why they should know your skin colour (or 'ethnicity', which is an entirely fraudulent concept anyway.)

Victor

That is all well and good until you are a victim of discrimination.

Cavehill Red

Victor wrote: »

That is all well and good until you are a victim of discrimination.

I'm from the North. When I grew up the entire state apparatus was discriminatory against my community.
What did I do? I sucked it up, and proved them wrong by the strength of my own ability.
I don't think I want to be part of something, be it a workplace or anything else, which doesn't want me there and has me only to fulfil a quota or to avoid legal sanction.
I'd much rather be working at something I can believe in, and that means something that believes in me and my ability, not in my skin colour, religious background or anything else.

Victor

All well and good, but a large organisation may believe in you, you may believe in you, may believe in each other, but somewhere in the middle is a bigot in a position of power that doesn't want you.

Cavehill Red

Victor wrote: »

All well and good, but a large organisation may believe in you, you may believe in you, may believe in each other, but somewhere in the middle is a bigot in a position of power that doesn't want you.

A large organisation has no belief or feelings. It demonstrates the thoughts, strategies and desires of those working for it and managing it.
If it accommodates bigots at any significant level, then it's not for me.
People are way too infantilised these days. Some people out there are bigots. Some people are nasty. Some people are unpleasant. That's life and you can't legislate it away. And it isn't best addressed by institutionalising a pseudo-parental thought police, because that weakens people's resolve to stand up for themselves and their determination to prove their own ability, while at the same time driving the very opinions and attitudes deeper and more underground that they seek to eradicate.

coylemj

A company or organisation can claim to be colour blind and gender agnostic when it comes to recruitment and internal promotion. Unfortunately the thought police or a disgruntled ex-employee can spring out of the woodwork and start to throw accusations of discrimination against the company.

In order to disprove such allegations your average large company needs to collect statistics which show that they have a balanced workforce and that racial or religious minorities, women, GBLTs etc. etc. are not discriminated against. The only way to prove that they have such an enlightened policy is by collecting statistics on existing and would-be employees.

Cavehill Red

No, in order to disprove an allegation, you simply investigate it and prove it false on the facts.

There is no need for collating intrusive and irrelevant statistics.

MCMT

Delancey wrote: »

OP - was this retailer a British company by any chance ? I ask because such questions are routinely asked in the UK - employers need to know the ethnicity of staff and applicants so they can ensure they are not indirectly discriminating against certain people.
There is a saying : '' If it can't be measured then it can't be managed ''

No. They are an Irish company.

MCMT

Our man in Havana wrote: »

There would be no obligation to answer such a question.

It was an online form so I believe the question had to be answered for the application to be submitted.

I don't think there was an option to submit a 'rather not say' option.