Recruiting a diverse workforce: legal implications / Personnel Today, 6 Feb 2007
http://digbig.com/4rgmc
Sally O'Reilly
"Recruiting a diverse workforce means negotiating a legal minefield. Employers need to maintain a delicate balance to meet their needs. In September 2006, Gloucestershire Police was taken to an industrial tribunal for illegally rejecting 108 applications from white men. Six months earlier, Avon and Somerset Police admitted it had rejected nearly 200 white applicants. Both police forces were seeking to advance diversity. This leaves public sector HR professionals with a dilemma. On the one hand, they're required to employ more staff from ethnic minorities to reflect the communities they serve, yet on the other, they have to comply with equality legislation. Positive discrimination - favouring minority applicants to meet a quota - is illegal, and every person appointed to a job in the UK must be selected on merit."