peterw Posted September 22, 2006 Share Posted September 22, 2006 WHITES! BBC News this morning. And as you can read, they’ve done it illegally! Gloucestershire police force has admitted illegally rejecting 108 job applicants because they were white men. The Police Federation said the force has been trying to recruit more female officers and more people from ethnic minorities to meet a government target. But one of the unsuccessful applicants, Matt Powell took legal action and has been awarded £2,500 by a tribunal. Mr Powell, 30, said he became suspicious when he was told he had been "randomly deselected". No response "I couldn't get 'randomly deselected' out of my head so I made some enquiries," he said. "I wrote letters, spoke to them and they were coming back with nothing, absolutely nothing. "They were refusing to talk to me, so I thought, well if you're not going to talk to me you'll talk to somebody, so that's when I got my MP involved and then my solicitor involved and that's when they started to talk." The case comes six months after Avon and Somerset Police admitted it had illegally rejected almost 200 applications from white men for the same reason. Government targets Police are under pressure to meet the government target, set in 1999, that by 2009, 7% of police officers in England and Wales should be from ethnic minority groups. In September 2005, only 1.6% of Gloucestershire Police officers were black or Asian. Jan Berry, chairman of the Police Federation said: "Some of those targets were set in a way that for some forces, it was achievable. "But for an awful lot, it was not, and sadly Gloucestershire, and recently Avon and Somerset, have been found to break the law." 'Positive action' Earlier this year, Gloucestershire's Assistant Chief Constable Michael Matthews admitted 'positive action' had been taken to recruit more women and from ethnic minorities. "It is essential in a democratic policing environment to ensure that under-represented groups are prioritised in our recruitment drives," he said. Mr Powell's solicitor, Nigel Tillott, said: "The impact of this is that it is now clear how far public authorities can go in positive action. "What they cannot do is discriminate against white males when it comes to job applications." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stackmonkey Posted September 22, 2006 Share Posted September 22, 2006 Simply confirming what we already know; that race discrimination laws DO work both ways. Next. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
torin8 Posted September 22, 2006 Share Posted September 22, 2006 It's a funny old world Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minesadouble Posted September 22, 2006 Share Posted September 22, 2006 Simply confirming what we already know; that race discrimination laws DO work both ways. Next. HERE HERE !!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scoop Posted September 22, 2006 Share Posted September 22, 2006 Staffordhire fire service had a similar ruling made against them a few years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stuff Posted September 22, 2006 Share Posted September 22, 2006 If that was against any of the minorities, instead of whites there'd be a national outrage. But it's okay to discriminate against whites. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blade1983 Posted September 22, 2006 Share Posted September 22, 2006 positive discrimination - JOKE! well if we're trying to recruit more people from under represented groups how about recruiting more of these: - One legged lesbians with Human-wearwolf syndrome - Men with one green eye and one blue eye - Peodofiles - Criminals - I think criminals are really under represented in the police force Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterw Posted September 22, 2006 Author Share Posted September 22, 2006 positive discrimination - JOKE! I think criminals are really under represented in the police force I don’t! They’ve had their share of murderers, rapists, drug barons and a whole host of the lesser varieties! Trouble is, they don’t specify what they want when they advertise, like “We need thieves to catch thieves. Think about a career in the police force!” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heyesey Posted September 22, 2006 Share Posted September 22, 2006 Mr Powell's solicitor, Nigel Tillott, said: "The impact of this is that it is now clear how far public authorities can go in positive action. "What they cannot do is discriminate against white males when it comes to job applications." But if they had not done so, they'd have been publicly vilified for not having enough non-white-males in their forces. So what should they do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fantomas Posted September 22, 2006 Share Posted September 22, 2006 So what should they do? Here's a crazy notion. How about recruiting the best candidates for the job? Call me wacky... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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