There have been such a slurry of "Prats of The Week" that I have got rather behind myself on this award, can I get behind myself???Anyhoo, this week's prestigious and coveted "Prat of The Week" Award goes to Trevor Phillips the chairman of the Commission for Equalities and Human Rights.
He recently got rather hot under the collar over the ethnic make up of the workforce of local supermarkets, and has suggested that they should be forced to recruit more ethnic minorities by positive discrimination.
Phillips said that retailers should have new powers making it is easier to attract employees, to reflect the make-up of their local communities.
Phillips wants new powers for his organ (The Commission for Equalities and Human Rights) to permit positive discrimination to prevent jobseekers from migrant communities being disadvantaged.
He claimed that firms, such as Tesco and Sainsbury, wanted greater flexibility to hire staff.
This is of course where it all came unstuck, for you see Tesco immediately said that he was talking bollocks. They noted that his comments were 'unfair and discriminatory'.
Surely, as Chairman of Commission for Equalities and Human Rights, he can't be unfair or discriminatory?????
The British Retail Consortium, which represents thousands of shops, noted the obvious flaw in Phillips' argument:
"Because shop staff tend to work relatively near
where they live they are already likely to reflect
their local communities but retailers will continue
to recruit on ability to do the job not on race.
Trevor Phillips seems to be calling for retailers
to be allowed to discriminate in favour of particular groups.
That means discriminating against others.
We believe retailers will reject this sort of
unfairness and go on recruiting on merit alone."
Exactly, given the low paid nature of supermarket work, the people who work in supermarkets tend to live locally. It would hardly be cost effective for them to commute several hours a day to go to work would it?
Congratulations on your award Trevor!
Was he only talking about supermarkets or do the seeming monopolies of cultural background that appear in corner shops, what used to be referred to as 'tobacconists' and other premises like retail petrol outlets and various 'ethnically themed' restuarants also within his gaze?
ReplyDeleteThing is Ken that you have no chance of keeping up with all the Prats of the Week. Indeed I'm sure one could build an entire career out of Prat-of-the-Hour.com . Plenty of subjects out there all trying to appear more stupid than the previous one and usually succeeding.
Grant
as a matter of interest, just how many white kids do you see serving in corner shops nowadays?
ReplyDelete