Legal Updates

Employment – Discrimination Claims – Abuse by Job Applicants

Employers are being advised to monitor their recruitment procedures in order to prevent bogus discrimination claims. 

Under the scam, one person will make numerous applications for a single position under different identities. One application will be genuine while the other applications contain all the same basic information, but declaring a different race, sex or disability. The applicant then tracks the different treatment applied to the applications. If one of the false applications is selected for interview, the jobseeker will then make a discrimination claim under the Sex Discrimination Act, Disability Discrimination Act or Race Relation Act.

Employers are vulnerable to this attack because the onus is on them to prove there has been no discrimination. This is very difficult to prove if the employer has not recorded the reason for rejection of a particular applicant. Employers are therefore encouraged to note the reasons why an applicant is unsuccessful.

Large employers are particularly sensitive to this assault because such businesses have thousands of applications and often take no record of the applications they have assessed or destroy unsuccessful applications.

For these claims to succeed they must be accurate and truthful. Applications from executives with identical CVs but different names and races are easier to identify. This means that the scam is limited to low level jobs.

Comment: It is recommended that employers keep clear records of why each application is rejected. Employers should also review all applications very carefully and look for similarities.

Please contact us for advice on protecting your recruitment procedures at [email protected] or Visit http://www.rtcoopers.com/practice_employment.php

© RT COOPERS, 2005. This Briefing Note does not provide a comprehensive or complete statement of the law relating to the issues discussed nor does it constitute legal advice. It is intended only to highlight general issues. Specialist legal advice should always be sought in relation to particular circumstances.