CONTENTS

• My Favourites
• Article One (Discrimination and Attractive People by Gareth Williams of Penn Legal)
• 250th Issue Prize Draw
• Don't Miss This (Discussion Board)
• Statistics (Hitwise Top 10 Recruitment Sites)
• Subscribe/Unsubscribe
• Feedback & Advertising Information

Visit http://www.careersinrecruitment.com for the latest recruitment industry jobs.

My Favourites

http://www.torino2006.org - The official website of the 2006 winter Olympics.  There is an event's calendar and live results updates.  You can keep up to date whilst at work.

http://thesaurus.reference.com/ - A dictionary, thesaurus and encyclopedia in one.  Very useful for putting together quality proposals or job specs.  Also great for helping out on your coffee break crossword.

http://www.xe.com/ucc/ - very good currency converter tool

Why not submit your 3 favourite web sites. See the guidelines at http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/articles.htm

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Article One: Discrimination and attractive people by Gareth Williams of Penn Legal

Question
One of my clients has told me that he only wants to recruit people who he considers to be attractive, he says it is good for office morale, accordingly he has asked me to only send attractive people for interview. When I asked for clarification as to what he means by ‘attractive’ he told me to rule people out if they are ugly, spotty, fat or ginger.  

Regardless of how unsavoury I find this policy would I be breaking the law if I followed his wishes?

Answer
This is an interesting question! There is no general law of unfair discrimination in English law, the law on discrimination only applies when discrimination occurs in respect of certain recognised criteria, yet there are still breaches of law that may occur if you seek to assist your client in his recruitment of staff on this basis. 

At first glance it may appear that your client is not discriminating on the grounds of race, sex, disability, sexual orientation, or (relevant from October 2006) age (which we will call ‘the discriminatory grounds’); however it is possible that your clients criteria may involve ‘indirect discrimination’ upon each of these grounds and also ‘direct discrimination’ on the grounds of race. 

Indirect discrimination occurs when policies or criteria are applied equally to all people but when the policy or criteria adversely affects some people more than it does others by reasons related to the discriminatory grounds. For example a refusal to allow job-sharing is not direct discrimination (as it applies equally to all groups) but may be indirect discrimination if it adversely affects women (who may be more likely to have child care responsibilities) more than it does men. When an individual is adversely affected by the implementation of a policy then they may have a potential claim for discrimination under the relevant legislation. A recruitment agency that assists with a discriminatory act may also be legally liable to the discriminated person. There are circumstances when indirect discrimination can be permitted, such as when the discrimination is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim; the rules differ according to the relevant legislation.

The question as to whether discrimination occurs on the discriminatory grounds will depend upon your client’s perception as to what constitutes an attractive person, and, if you assist your client on this basis, your interpretation of what he considers to be attractive. 

Your client’s contention that he is open to employing people irrespective of the discriminatory grounds may not assist him, or you if it can be shown that he generally is more likely to consider people of certain ‘groups’ to be more attractive that others (e.g. young v old, white v black, gay/lesbian v heterosexual, men v women, able-bodied v handicapped). It is quite likely that a person may be able to bring a claim for discrimination in respect of their failure to be selected for employment if they receive less preferential treatment to another person, of equal qualifications and experience, whom belonged to a group that your client generally considers to be more attractive.

It is worth noting that there may also be claims for direct racial discrimination in respect of your client’s prohibition on employing people with ginger hair. As ginger hair only occurs naturally in white people your client may be guilty of discriminating against white people; this will be true even if your client is white.

It is worth noting that the nature of the position for which a client is recruiting can make discrimination on the grounds of attractiveness reasonable. If there is a ‘genuine occupational requirement’ for a person in a role to have certain physical characteristics (e.g. beauty) then it may well be reasonable to recruit on that basis. These circumstances will however be exceptional and are likely to be confined to circumstances where the appearance of the person who’s employment is sought is central to their role (e.g. for a modelling assignment). Nothing in your question indicates that this is relevant in this case.

Gareth Williams specialises in Employment and Recruitment Law at Penn Legal. Email: gareth.williams@pennlegal.co.uk. Telephone 0870 043 4361. 

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250th Issue Prize Draw

The newsletter was first started in January 1999 with a readership of around 50 people.  For the first four years it was sent out fortnightly but, due to increasing demand for content, in 2003 we started producing the newsletter as a weekly publication.  Now seven years on we have over 15,000 subscribers and have reached our 250th issue. 

As a thank you to our loyal audience we have got together with a number of recruitment industry suppliers to offer some fantastic prizes.  The prizes, and those who contributed them, are:

Delancy HR (www.delancey.co.uk) - providers of a comprehensive HR and recruitment advertising service - are contributing a mixed 12 bottle case selection of red and white wine for all occasions, from The Sunday Times Wine Club (plus free membership of the Club)

Cadence Market Strategy (www.theCadenceTeam.com) - with recruitment PR and marketing expertise - is contributing a bottle of Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label Brut (or similar if not available)

eJobClub (www.eJobClub.co.uk) - providing FREE unlimited job listings with coverage in all industries throughout the UK - are contributing a brand new 49cc race replica mini moto (worth £300)

Goldjobs.com (www.goldjobs.com) - senior executive advertising and networking portal - are contributing a bottle of champagne

People Point Recruitment (www.peoplepointrecruitment.com) - Recruitment to Recruitment consultancy - are contributing a bottle of Champagne, a box of Thorntons Continental Chocolates worth £15 and £20 worth of Next vouchers

Grapevinejobs (www.grapevinejobs.com) - the best source for jobs in and around broadcast, film and music - are contributing two bottles of Chateau grapevinejobs

Lodge Service UK Ltd (www.lodgeservice.com) - on-line pre-employment checks; for details email Martin Segal at msegal@emps.co.uk or 020 8446 6601 - are contributing £50 of gift vouchers

Kapow (www.kapow.co.uk) - sms gateway provider - are contributing a multi region DVD player

Henley Research (www.henleyresearch.com) - executive recruitment researchers - are contributing £20 of music vouchers

Exec-Appointments Ltd (www.exec-appointments.com) - executive level job-board - are contributing a box of Thorntons chocolates

Construction Jobsearch (www.constructionjobsearch.co.uk) - free job posting on this new construction job board - are contributing an optical "street" mouse (www.iwantoneofthose.com/search.do?productCode=STRMOU) 

Parttimejobs4u (www.parttimejobs4u.com) - contract, temp and part time work job site - are contributing a £15 Marks and Spencer voucher

Oilandgasjobsearch.com Limited (www.oilandgasjobsearch.com) - the world's premier oil and gas industry job site - are contributing a food and wine hamper

GAAPweb (www.gaapweb.com) - financial and accountancy jobs site - are contributing a bottle of champagne

Simplylawjobs.com (www.simplylawjobs.com) - job board with thousands of legal jobs in the UK - are contributing a £50 Marks & Spencer's voucher

Officerecruit.com (www.officerecruit.com) - NEW UPGRADED SITE - job board for all office vacancies across the UK - are contributing a mixed 12 bottle case selection of red and white wine

executivesontheweb.com (www.executivesontheweb.com) - the UK number 1 executive recruitment website - are contributing two £20 Marks and Spencer gift vouchers

The Directors Coach (www.thedirectorscoach.com) - executive and business coaching organisation - are contributing a copy of their self-help manual "The Coaching Parent"

MidJobs (www.midjobs.com) - jobs in Birmingham & Warwickshire Free no obligation recruiter trial - are contributing £20 in music gift vouchers

ISV Software Ltd (www.isvgroup.com) - leaders in software training and assessment for the Recruitment sector - are contributing a bottle of champagne

REC (www.rec.uk.com) – The Recruitment and Employment Confederation – are contributing a bottle of Veuve Clicquot champagne

Intelligence Software (www.intel-sw.com) - designed to increase the profitability and efficiency of your recruitment business or agency - are contributing a "big surprise"!

Omni HR Solutions (www.omnihrs.co.uk) - providers of Harrison Assessments; “Can you imagine a workplace where everyone enjoys their job?” - are contributing half a dozen bottles of quality Australian red wine.

Crocodile Systems (www.palustris.co.uk) - providers of Palustris; ‘Recruitment Software That Works for You’ - are contributing dinner for two at any Renaissance or Marriott hotel. The dinner consists of a 3 course meal for two people and soft drinks 

Dillistone Systems (www.dillistone.com) – specialist software and services provider to Executive Search, Interim Management and Contract placements companies – is contributing £40 of The Pier gift vouchers

Media Contacts (www.media-contacts.co.uk) -  London media recruitment consultants - are contributing a free lunch for two at Islington's Colebrooke's wine bar www.colebrookes.co.uk  comprising its famous sharing platter and a bottle of fine wine

CV-library.co.uk (www.cv-library.co.uk) - unlimited search over 800 new CVs per day, post jobs. Fill your vacancies! - are contributing £30 of WHSmith vouchers 

Hampshire Trust Factors (www.htfactors.co.uk) - flexible Back Office Support and Factoring company - is contributing three months cinema membership (up to the value of £40)

Please note that there are some terms and conditions which you must adhere to:

• Only entries giving full name, job title, company and address details will be valid (please ensure you give the postal address where you would like the prize delivered if you are a winner). 

• Entrants must be UK based. 

• Entrants must be recruitment professionals (ie, working for a recruitment consultancy/agency or as an inhouse recruiter). Suppliers to the recruitment industry may not enter the prize draw.

• Entrants must be subscribers to the ukrecruiter newsletter 

• Emails from entrants must be received by 6pm on Friday 19th February 2006 GMT. 

• Duplicate entries will be discounted. 

• The prize draw will take place at 6pm on Friday 19th February - names will be drawn out of the hat and prizes allocated randomly to the named person until all prizes have been allocated. 

• We will publish the names of the winners and the company they work for after the prize draw has taken place. 

• The judge's decision (Louise Triance) is final. 

To enter

Email newsletter@ukrecruiter.co.uk with the subject line of Prize Draw.  Don't forget we need your full name, job title, company and address details.

GOOD LUCK!

You can also view this information on our website at  http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/250thgifts.htm. 

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For information email louise@ukrecruiter.co.uk

Don't Miss This

UK Recruiter Discussion Forum - Are you using it? 
Don't forget to visit http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/forum. Current topics on the site include "Outsourced Recruitment Services", "Blogging" and "Taking a client to court - advice needed!!". It is free to use the discussion board and you don't have to register to view messages. Visit the site; ask questions and share your knowledge

Statistics

Hitwise top 10 Recruitment Sites, week ending 11th February 2006
The most visited UK recruitment sites last week, starting with the most popular, were Jobcentreplus.gov.uk, Totaljobs.co.uk, Monster.co.uk, Jobsite.co.uk, Reed.co.uk,  jobs.nhs.uk, TESjobs.co.uk, friendsreunitedjobs.co.uk, jobs.guardian.co.uk and monster.co.uk - my monster. For more information about Hitwise, visit http://www.hitwise.co.uk  

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