Way back in the day when I worked in a supermarket, every single applicant was asked if they minded handling meat, pork, and alcohol - and they asked with particular care when hiring Hindus and Moslems. I have no doubt whatsoever that all who answered 'yes' or equivocated were rejected.
This is probably illegal today.
In the case of Tesco, that line of questioning has been dropped for sound commercial reasons - if you want low-cost teenage labour that works passably well, washes regularly, can read labels and count the boxes off a lorry, then you absolutely have to employ the descendants of the Raj - because the natives are not only illiterate but untrainable. So Tesco have learned to adapt, and stand above all too many employers who did not; these others to refuse to adapt to a multiracial society, and if it sounds reasonable to discriminate on the grounds of willingness to work at any task, it should be remembered that the implementation at shop-floor level will inevitably involve prejudice and malice, rather than sound business principles and colour-blind commercial judgement.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-01-25 12:57 am (UTC)Way back in the day when I worked in a supermarket, every single applicant was asked if they minded handling meat, pork, and alcohol - and they asked with particular care when hiring Hindus and Moslems. I have no doubt whatsoever that all who answered 'yes' or equivocated were rejected.
This is probably illegal today.
In the case of Tesco, that line of questioning has been dropped for sound commercial reasons - if you want low-cost teenage labour that works passably well, washes regularly, can read labels and count the boxes off a lorry, then you absolutely have to employ the descendants of the Raj - because the natives are not only illiterate but untrainable. So Tesco have learned to adapt, and stand above all too many employers who did not; these others to refuse to adapt to a multiracial society, and if it sounds reasonable to discriminate on the grounds of willingness to work at any task, it should be remembered that the implementation at shop-floor level will inevitably involve prejudice and malice, rather than sound business principles and colour-blind commercial judgement.