Want The Best Job Applicant For Your Audience? "This Is A Stickup," Love, The NYC Commission On Human Rights
Shockingly a British pub might want to hire British employees. This is a problem for a British pub in Brooklyn, like the Longbow Pub and Pantry, which NYT reporter Andy Newman calls "a British pub through and through, from the Welsh national rugby jersey framed by the bar to the Old Speckled Hen ale in the fish-and-chips batter to the accents that ring loud off the walls during soccer broadcasts." Newman continues:
So when the owners needed a bartender last year, they sought someone who knew the territory. "Energetic and enthusiastic men and women with an appreciation of craft beer, good food, whisky and real football (a k a soccer)," the Craigslist ad read in part. "Being British definitely works in your favor."The résumés trickled in. One applicant, however, was not really looking for a job. She already had one: trolling the classifieds for the New York City Commission on Human Rights.
Soon, Longbow received a legal notice. The bar, it said, had violated discrimination law "by giving a preference to employment applicants based on their national origin."
The commission offered to settle the matter for $2,500.
But Longbow's owners say they are just doing what many thousands of ethnically identified businesses across the city do: seeking the best applicants to help them cater to their audience. They are not giving up without a fight.
The Colberts say they are perfectly willing to hire qualified people who are not British.
"Kate behind the bar, she's from Long Island," Jennifer Colbert said on Wednesday as the dregs of the crowd that had gathered to watch Bayern Munich dispatch Barcelona in the Champions League semifinal trickled out into the evening. "But she got her hospitality degree in London."
Colbert says that a suitable employee knows that "Wales is not where the Princess is from, why Everton v. Liverpool is an important match, that 'knocking someone up' is not about being pregnant, a banger has nothing to do with gangs, black pudding is not a dessert and that the Old Firm has nothing to do with attorneys."
Of course, the commission cares about none of this.
Bend over for your gouging, please!
via my NYC friend @NormaDesperate
"Freedom of association" ought to mean the right to associate with whoever you choose, in whatever context you choose.
If you don't want a particular type person as an employee, you should not be required to hire them. If you don't want a particular type of person as a customer, you should not be required to serve them.
a_random_guy at May 4, 2013 2:08 AM
Politically Correct is not compatible with any image a company (especially service industry) wants to project.
Wasn't there a similar case about a year ago from a fatty waitress?
I wonder what the NYC Commission On Human Rights would do with this ad: "Any race except Caucasian"
Especially since it come from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Jim P. at May 4, 2013 2:18 AM
Idiots. Everyone knows that you leave out that offending sentence, write the job ad to make it clear that cultural knowledge will help (diversity!), then bring up genuine Britishness in the post interview panel discussion.
"Well, so-and-so is very well qualified, but does she fit the image we want to project..."
Ltw at May 4, 2013 2:38 AM
"by giving a preference to employment applicants based on their national origin."
Wrong. The problem wasn't that they gave preference to someone based on their national origin; it is that national origin is White Anglo-Saxon Protestant!
Charles at May 4, 2013 4:14 AM
I'm a landlord. I am SPECIFICALLY enjoined from advertising "Hispanic neighborhood" when I advertise my rental properties. Do you know what the FIRST QUESTION Hispanic people ask me when they call to discuss seeing the property?
Without fail, they want to know:"Is it in a Hispanic neighborhood?"
*facepalm*
Lamont Cranston at May 4, 2013 9:57 AM
Dumb, dumb, dumb for them to actually put it in the ad. Even if it was a joke - *especially* if it was a joke. It's the level of dumb where I really have a hard time feeling sorry for them. Like "yeah the asshole that hit you shouldn't have been driving drunk, but why weren't you wearing your seatbelt?" kind of dumb.
Elle at May 4, 2013 10:41 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2013/05/04/want_the_best_j.html#comment-3697702">comment from ElleYou *should* be able to prefer hiring a Brit at a British pub and to do it, and to advertise for it, same as you should be able to say that your house in a Hispanic neighborhood is, in fact, in a Hispanic neighborhood.
Are you not allowed to say "non-smoking" -- and if you are allowed to say that, why does that kind of discrimination fly and not other kinds?
Amy Alkon at May 4, 2013 10:45 AM
Comaparing "British only" to "no smokers" is silly. Smoking is a decision -- and second-hand smoke can damage the health of other people. Smoking isn't an accident of birth.
There are some good arguments to be made for why pubs should be allowed to hire British employees, but that's not one of them.
Hasidic Jews in NYC don't have this problem. There are entirely Jewish buildings, and they manage it by renting through word of mouth.
MonicaP at May 4, 2013 11:57 AM
You're right, it is a decision.
What about Jason Collins coming out? I'm not saying it is a choice to be gay, but making the information public is a decision.
So they want to hire an employee that fits with the theme of the place. That should not be illegal.
Jim P. at May 4, 2013 8:57 PM
@MonicaP: If it could be proven that pedophilia is caused by a genetic defect (an "accident of birth"), would it be right for you to "discriminate" against one when you hire a babysitter to watch your kids?
Show your work.
Chris at May 5, 2013 9:18 AM
"You *should* be able to prefer hiring a Brit at a British pub..."
It doesn't really matter whether or not you *should* be able to. EEOC doesn't allow discrimination based on national origin. Putting a preference of national origin in hiring advertisement is beyond stupid. This is just Hiring Employees 101.
And if you really want to hire a Brit then there are ways of giving them preference without doing it because of their national origin. Make knowledge of football a prerequisite, ask them if they like their beer at room temperature, or any of a dozen things you *can* discriminate on as long as you don't say the words "being British works in your favor."
"Are you not allowed to say "non-smoking"..."
Smokers are not a protected classification.
Elle at May 5, 2013 3:55 PM
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