A hospital trust taking pride in offering diversity leadership has had to pull a job advert that included the comment ‘the usual rubbish about equal opportunities’.

Red-faced human resources staff at Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust have updated the wording to include more detailed equality information

The advert was inviting applications for a trainee anaesthetist.

A trust spokesperson said: “The wording on this advert in no way reflects the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust’s position in relation to equal opportunities, to which it is fully committed.

“The trust is conscious of its duty to promote equality and is a Stonewall Diversity Champion employer.

“The trust will be investigating this incident to ensure that this cannot happen again.”

Employers are targetted for placing job adverts that breach equality guidelines by bogus applicants.

John Berry, 55, from Bristol, has bragged of banking thousands of pounds by lodging around 60 employment tribunal claims against organisations flouting age discrimination guidelines.

He lodged complaints against employers advertising posts suitable for “recent graduates” or “school leavers” and then wrote to them offering to withdraw the action if a settlement of around £3,500 was paid.

Employers can avoid claims by keeping to equality guidelines, specifically:

• Do not suggest a job is closed to applicants on grounds of race, sex, disability, sexual orientation, age or religion or belief.

• Job adverts should not include gender specific wording, like “salesmen” or “waitress”, or descriptions that suggest an age requirement like “mature person”.

• Make sure job adverts are circulated to a diverse audience.

But even lawyers fall foul of the rules – like the US firm of Orrick, Herrington & Suttcliffe offered a post where the “ideal candidate” would be no older than 30.

The job was for a European Corporate lawyer in Rome.

According to the firm’s web site, the candidate should have “a magna cum laude Italian degree in law, a classical lyceum diploma with full marks, and an LLM degree possibly with merit or distinction”.

Then the statement: “…who would enjoy working in a young environment as they would be 26-30 years old.”

This article is filed under : , Diversity, Legal, Leadership, Minorities, Equality Act 2010, equality strands, Protected charactersitcs, Role models

What is diversity? See http://www.diversityleaders.org/our-services/what-is-diversity

Do you want more than what Equality Training or Diversity Training Courses can deliver? See Diversity at Work in the workplace http://www.diversityleaders.org/our-services/training-a-events

For more content Diversity Leaders Magazine http://paper.li/diversitylead/1308375628

Leadership Voice Magazine     Key topics : Leadership, Discrimination, Diversity