Diversity quota.

This has been happening for years. I retired 15 years ago from the Civil Service. It was happening there. I believe it happens in most organisations.

Positive discrimination happens routinely whether it is lawful or not. Political parties discriminate to get whatever “balance” of MPs they think is expedient.
Companies and LAs do exactly the same.

But on the question of LGBT job candidates or employees it is very bad form indeed to ask anyone about their sexuality or trans status and the Op's daughter could have replied as such.
As well as emphasising back to them exactly how wrong this would be.

David49

Positive discrimination happens routinely whether it is lawful or not. Political parties discriminate to get whatever “balance” of MPs they think is expedient.
Companies and LAs do exactly the same.

it depends what you mean by expedient? It seemed to me to have been reasonable to try and make specific efforts to get an adequate representation of women in parliament, for example, on the grounds that men and women do bring differing perspectives to the world at times and they are actually making legislation for the population as a whole.

David49

Positive discrimination happens routinely whether it is lawful or not. Political parties discriminate to get whatever “balance” of MPs they think is expedient.
Companies and LAs do exactly the same.

Political parties aren't the employers of MPs so employment law doesn't have any impact on the parties relationship with MPs.

Wokery at it's stupid worst.
On the subject of woke-ishness, an item in The Guardian pointed out that Keir Starmer has banished a portrait of William Gladstone from No 10 due to supposed historical links to slavery.
Nothing like attempting to re-write history......

mae13

Wokery at it's stupid worst.
On the subject of woke-ishness, an item in The Guardian pointed out that Keir Starmer has banished a portrait of William Gladstone from No 10 due to supposed historical links to slavery.
Nothing like attempting to re-write history......

I do not think the current PM likes portraits of previous PMs, maybe they make him feel inferior?

GrannyGravy13

mae13

Wokery at it's stupid worst.
On the subject of woke-ishness, an item in The Guardian pointed out that Keir Starmer has banished a portrait of William Gladstone from No 10 due to supposed historical links to slavery.
Nothing like attempting to re-write history......

I do not think the current PM likes portraits of previous PMs, maybe they make him feel inferior?

Maybe he looks to the future not the past?

mae13

Wokery at it's stupid worst.
On the subject of woke-ishness, an item in The Guardian pointed out that Keir Starmer has banished a portrait of William Gladstone from No 10 due to supposed historical links to slavery.
Nothing like attempting to re-write history......

How is it rewriting history? The Gladstone family built their wealth on slavery, William Gladstone defended his father's ownership of slaves and seems happy to have enjoyed the money they provided. Wouldn't rewriting history be pretending that he had no involvement in slavery?

Moving a portrait isn't rewriting history . Apparently KS doesn't like portraits - he also moved (not 'banished') one of Margaret Thatcher. So what? Have people really reached the point of criticising him for which pictures he wants on his walls?

Anyway - EDI is usually about ensuring that the language and distribution of job ads reaches a range of applicants (eg there is a good chance that an ad in Manly Man Magazine for a role that would 'suit someone under 40 with a wife to assist' wouldn't reach many older women who may be perfectly well qualified for the role, and could rule out gay men too.

As has been pointed out, sexuality (which of course has nothing to do with so-called 'gender') should only be asked about for monitoring purposes, to ensure that there is no active discrimination - eg if no gay people had been employed in a large organisation for 20 years there is probably a reason somewhere in the appointment process. The monitoring data should not be linked to the applicants.

If a transwoman is appointed, it is important that the appointment is recorded as male for statistical purposes, or the number of women may be skewed to appear greater than it is, particularly in more senior roles.

Years ago we had to encourage women to enter the workforce and burst through the glass ceiling.

I was told I was taken on in my first job because I had good legs, seems a great asset in my manager's eyes!

There is nothing wrong with positive discrimination.

Providing a step for someone with shorter legs than you isn't wokery but creating an equal vantage point for both parties.

Giving the smaller legged person a higher step is tokenism- which is the opposite of discrimination but an advantage to no one.

Personally I can't stand the wokery of employing people who went to a 'good' school similar to the one you went to.

My son is gay. He is a successful barrister and KC. He has achieved what he has achieved because he is good at his job, not because he is gay. That’s how it should be.

Reading some of the posts makes me want to weep. I don't know what company Kirkcubbin's daughter works for but clearly they have absolutely no idea what good employment practice is. The key words are unbiased and inclusive, underpinned by an organisational understanding of what it wishes to achieve in terms of "diversity".
In the 90's I trained senior management in recruitment and training, the focus in those days was gender and ethnicity but it was never about employing a woman or a person of colour in preference to a white male. It was absolutely about ensuring that recruitment practice encouraged applications from suitably qualified people regardless of gender or ethnicity, short listing and interviewing fairly ranked candidates to the job spec and the skills and experience required and the aim was to ensure you offered the job to the "best" candidate. If two candidates were equally suitable then the company could look at their equal opportunities/diversity strategy and appoint according to that. So much "rubbish" is talked these days, it is possible to take an employer to a tribunal on the basis that someone of colour has been given preference over someone, who is more qualified who is white.
Meaning of ‘racial group’
2.46 A racial group is a group of people who have or share a colour, nationality or ethnic or national origins. For example, a racial group could be ‘British’ people. All racial groups are protected from unlawful discrimination under the Act.

The above was taken from the 2010 employment doce of practice/ 2010 equality act.

First off, surely a lot of forms one fills in usually have a box marked "Prefer not to say" when it comes to sexuality.
Secondly, what happens if there are no gay, bi, or trans applicants for a position? Is the employer supposed to go out on the street and hunt for some?
"Wokery" isn't employing someone who went to a similar school to you keepingquiet "Wokery" is making sure you give everyone an opportunity, whatever background they come from.

Well said Merseymog. It's high time these diversity quotas were well and truly quashed, it's no way to choose someone who is right for the job.

A recent advertisement for a position at my local symphony hall stated roughly that “In the interests of diversity, applicants of ethnicity are particularly welcomed”
Is this allowed and would I (if young enough and eligible) be turned down whatever my qualifications and experience?

As previous posters have said, it's not about how you choose the best applicant. This has with very small exceptions (positive discrimination was lawful & even in a few instances used in the late 80's/ 90's- don't think its even legal any more) always been one on who best fits the job specification for the role & performs best at interview.It's about publicising the role in a variety of places so everyone gets to see it, encouraging subsets of employees who don't statistically go for promotion, to feel more able to, via pushing training schemes & mentoring good potential candidates. I agree it's difficult for a manager to "procure" LGBT candidates, but there are things they should be able to list that make their team a place where these minorities would be happy to work or to go for promotion. When shortlisting in a big organisation, I did feel that even now discriminatory criteria are being used by some, & so reminding managers of their responsibilities under the Equalities Act is still useful imo.The quota is what is aimed for - it does not mean compulsory recruitment of someone from that category.

"“In the interests of diversity, applicants of ethnicity are particularly welcomed”

Yes, its legal -

It's no more or less than stated, they would like to have more diversity in the arts, people are encouraged to apply.

My chum, applied several times to get into Medical School as a mature student. She had the right qualification plus was already had a Clinical Science degree.
The year she got her place, is the year she ticked the LGBT box... She knew that swung it from the paperwork.
She is not LGBT, after she got in no one bothered with her, she qualified no problem.

Interestingly, although so far, the posts have always been given to the best candidate, via the best application letter, the best performance in interview tasks and the best interview the excitement among some governors, with which male candidates applying for key stage one jobs is interesting.

hollysteers

A recent advertisement for a position at my local symphony hall stated roughly that “In the interests of diversity, applicants of ethnicity are particularly welcomed”
Is this allowed and would I (if young enough and eligible) be turned down whatever my qualifications and experience?

Yes, it is allowed to state you welcome applications from people who are underrepresented in your work place but every application should be assessed on how closely it matches the person specification. In some organisations it is considered good practice to remove anything which identifies gender, race, etc so the short listing is done "blind".

In the various fields included broadly speaking the "Arts" it may be important to have women and people from different backgrounds in post - to get the breadth of "voices" in our society. You only have to listen to for example BBC R4 "Front Row" to appreciate this.

Kate1949

This has been happening for years. I retired 15 years ago from the Civil Service. It was happening there. I believe it happens in most organisations.

It's just as bad now: we have to do a compulsory course every year about diversity that has a test at the end you have to pass and you could be in trouble if you fail to take this course. It's a load of box ticking nonsense that most of us think is a waste of time, but we have to do it or else. Also the PCS union is just as bad.

hollysteers

A recent advertisement for a position at my local symphony hall stated roughly that “In the interests of diversity, applicants of ethnicity are particularly welcomed”
Is this allowed and would I (if young enough and eligible) be turned down whatever my qualifications and experience?

Welcoming applications does not mean they won't be fair. Think about it logically, why would any business owner or manager actively try to not employ the best candidate for the job? The only reason I can see, after a 40 year career in HR, is people who don't recognise their own bias, so white men favouring white men, privately educated people favouring people on the old boy network.

I grew up in a notorious area, a slum, vice area, drug area. When I was working in police admin a senior officer was talking about an investigation into a crime in my original area and he said, "they should build a wall round it and drop a bomb and clear the lot out." I told him that was where I grew up, he looked stunned and said, "But you seem normal." Well yes many normal people came from that slum and some who had far outdone the privileged from other parts of the city, a boy in the year above me ended up in the House of Lords, a girl a couple of years younger than me featured in a magazine article about successful women as she was a top surgeon. That well spoken, well educated senior officer didn't even recognise his own prejudice.