Help Wanted -- Job With British Government. White Brits Need Not Apply.

MayorBob.

Posted to Etcetera on Fri Aug 10, 2007 at 07:29:43 AM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.

18-year-old Abigail Howarth of Bedfordshire in England thought she was a natural for a training position with the Environment Agency.  Abigail, who is waiting results in her A-Levels in environmental science, geography, and geology, submitted her application for a position which would pay her a (UK) £13,000-a-year tax-free grant.  Imagine her surprise at being turned down.  Imagine her shock at the reason for the turndown -- she's a white Briton and the Environment Agency isn't having any of that.

It's not that Abigail is unqualified for the job of flood management trainee -- she's just not ethnically correct.  She was informed by a representative of PATH National,the company processing the applications, the job is only open to everyone but "White English."  The traineeship position was "targeted towards the ethnic minority group to address their under representations in the professions under the Race Relations Act amended 2000."  The way the Race Relations Act reads, had Abigail been Scottish, Welsh, or Irish she would have been good to go.  The job announcement "encouraged applications from "Asian, Indian, White other (e.g., Irish, Scottish, Welsh, European), African, Caribbean, or of Mixed Race origins."  However, the announcement didn't say applications would not be accepted from "White English" applicants.  PATH National official defended the decision:

"The `White Welsh', `White Irish' and `White Scottish' is a technicality in law - if they are a minority, they are entitled to places on these schemes - they are not part of the majority group, which is `White English'.  The `White English' in this area are the majority group and hence could not apply.  That is the way the law is laid."

Howarth doesn't have a problem with the government combatting under-representation where under-representation exists.  However, she feels "when it's broken down to this level it seems crazy to me."  The Environment Agency said it couldn't prove under-representation in the Anglia area the job was located.  However, it says the Commission for Racial Equality pronounced what was done as legal.  A civil liberties group, Liberty and Law, has petitioned CRE to have PATH put a hold on the recruitment until the legality can be clearly determined.  Public reaction expressed in comments in the Mail and other newspapers range from amazement to outrage.  The reaction of one Welsh paper was a half-joking "we're an ethnic minority, who knew?"