NI company asking me to fill out "Religious Community" questionare for an interview

munkifisht

I applied to a job with an NI company a few weeks ago. Last night I received a letter reply from them. It looks like it is a standard issue thing they do for every applicant, but it asks me if I am a member of the Protestant, Roman Catholic or Other Communities. It goes on to say that if I do not fill in the form, they will make assumptions on my religious background based on my CV and application. When I read it I was quite shocked. Is this not the most stupid question they could ask? Does this not leave them open to grounds of discrimination?

I am not sure of the laws governing this kind of stuff up North, I'm a Dub myself, but I do know that here, while it is not illegal to ask these questions, they are not asked because it is very hard to disprove discrimination.

In a way I feel offended, I don't consider myself to be part of any religious community, I feel Irish (and I don't mean that in a 32 counties only kind of way).

wench

Employers in NI have to ask this, as they must be able to show they haven't discriminated. They have to report annually on the composition of their applicants and those they hired.

http://www.equalityni.org/sections/default.asp?cms=Your+Rights_Fair+employment+%26+treatment&cmsid=2_56&id=56&secid=2#monitor

m.j.w

yea i was asked for all my jobs up north, its the norm

Shelga

It's ridiculous alright. Every job I've applied for in NI has had one of those forms attached. I'm an atheist, but a guy who works up north told me they're more likely to hire you if you put down Catholic, as it shows them in a favourable light, so my principles went out the window.

jackiebaron

Born Again Non-Believer
Jedi
Church of the Poison Mind
Manic Street Preacher

jackiebaron

Shelga wrote: »

It's ridiculous alright. Every job I've applied for in NI has had one of those forms attached. I'm an atheist, but a guy who works up north told me they're more likely to hire you if you put down Catholic, as it shows them in a favourable light, so my principles went out the window.

Judas :pac:

Tabnabs

Similarly, companies on "the mainland" (;)) always made me fill in ethnicity details on employment applications.

munkifisht

Bloody hell, that's insane. Thanks anyway guys. I suppose I'll put in Catholic so, despite the fact that I'm pretty much in the same boat as you Shelga (a possibilian rather than Atheist though), but surely giving anyone a job based on their religion is a farce, even if it is "positive" discrimination.

Delancey

Northern Ireland has some of the toughest Fair Employment legislation in Europe , the background ( for those that don't know ) is that for decades unemployment among Catholics was far higher than for Protestants. This imbalance was particularly pronounced in male unemployment figures whereas large numbers of Catholic females were employed in the textiles / shirt making industries ( now largely defunct ).
Major employers in Belfast like Harlaand and Wolff , Shorts Aircraft , Mackey Engineering , etc had workforces that were near 100% Protestant.
As part of an effort to tackle this the requirement was introduced for all employers to monitor the composition of their workforce and that is why you are asked to state your background.
If you don't declare it then thay are allowed to infer your background , for example if you say you went to St. Piux CBS then they will consider you RC.

I really don't know why people get so indignant about these questions , if offended my advice is to get over it !

dlofnep

It's for statistical purposes, to have visibility over equality across the workplace. Just put atheist if you're atheist.

ardmacha

Just put atheist if you're atheist.

This is cheating the question. They are interested in whether you are a Taig or a Prod, not whether you believe in God.

Delancey

Yeah put down atheist if you wish - matters not a jot as they will categorise you Catholic or Protestant anyway

francis1978

I suppose we all know the joke with the punchline 'a catholic atheist or a protestant atheist' Any job I have ever applied for in the north had these forms.

Tails142

It is jarring to people from the south as it is constantly drummed in that religion should have no bearing.

It's not just statistical, if an employer has over a certain percentage of protestants they must higher catholics or vice versa.

Just proves how fubar (f***ed beyond all recognition) the North is/was

donkey balls

What about this for a question I had on a application form,Do you live in a council house/flat or private house/flat wtf has that got to do with a prospective employee.

Mrs OBumble

donkey balls wrote: »

What about this for a question I had on a application form,Do you live in a council house/flat or private house/flat wtf has that got to do with a prospective employee.

Interesting question - what was the job?



TBH, I don't have any time for people giving out about the employment practices in other countries: if you don't like them, then don't apply for jobs in that country, simple as. .... And no, I'm not getting political: the North IS another country, whether you or I or anyone else thinks it should be or not.

doolox

Reminds me of an incident involving a riot after the police accidently killed a dog and expected trouble afterwards. One of the accompanying journalists asked the above question to find out where the riots were expected.......

donkey balls

JustMary wrote: »

Interesting question - what was the job?



TBH, I don't have any time for people giving out about the employment practices in other countries: if you don't like them, then don't apply for jobs in that country, simple as. .... And no, I'm not getting political: the North IS another country, whether you or I or anyone else thinks it should be or not.

The job was for a Professional arctic driver with a hazardous chemical licence needless to say I didn't take the job when told they pay the min wage.

jackiebaron

JustMary wrote: »

Interesting question - what was the job?



TBH, I don't have any time for people giving out about the employment practices in other countries: if you don't like them, then don't apply for jobs in that country, simple as. .... And no, I'm not getting political: the North IS another country, whether you or I or anyone else thinks it should be or not.

Doesn't matter. As EU citizens we are all entitled to work in other member states. If I was going for a job in the UK and they had a bunch of questions like Complexion? Ethnicity? And then had subquestions for your ethnicity like "if you're dark are you black, hindu or sikh?", I'd be fairly outraged by that too.

ABajaninCork

jackiebaron wrote: »

Doesn't matter. As EU citizens we are all entitled to work in other member states. If I was going for a job in the UK and they had a bunch of questions like Complexion? Ethnicity? And then had subquestions for your ethnicity like "if you're dark are you black, hindu or sikh?", I'd be fairly outraged by that too.

I agree with you. But I'm afraid it's standard procedure in the UK where I'm from. Not only do they ask my ethnicity, but also go as far as to ask about my exact origins in some cases. Most of the time, I don't bother to answer, juts put 'Other'. It should be fairly obvious what my origins are when I turn up for interview! Mind you, even putting that brings a whole new set of questions!:rolleyes:

AFAIC -the best person should be hired, regardless of race/religion/disability or anything else that might be used to discriminate. But we all know that's not how it works. Which is a shame...

shoegirl

Delancey wrote: »

Yeah put down atheist if you wish - matters not a jot as they will categorise you Catholic or Protestant anyway

In other words, are you a catholic athiest or a protestant athiest?

To be honest its just a similar situation to the thing we have here where you are not allowed to discriminate against women on the grounds of pregnancy, the number of children they have etc. The "don't ask, don't tell" approach tends to mean that answers are inferred so the only response to that is to make everybody explicitly spell it out and then check back afterwards to prove discrimination didn't happen, instead of just hoping it doesn't and expecting complainants to prove they were not fairly treated is less likely to tackle the problem.

Delancey

shoegirl wrote: »

In other words, are you a catholic athiest or a protestant athiest?

Couldn't have put it better myself