Equal opportunities

[sombrefan]

So when you apply for a job in Northern Ireland, the law requires that an equal opportunities form gets filled in to help ensure that discrimination doesn't play a part in the selection process. The info is confidential and the interview panel doesn't get to see it. Anyhow here's the latest version plus the options. Note that some of the info asked for will be different than what gets asked for in mainland Britain.


General Details

Date of birth

Gender - Male, Female

Marital status - Single, Cohabiting/With Partner, Married, Civil Partnership (same sex), Separated, Divorced, Widowed, Other

Country of nationality

Ethnic origin - White, Indian, Pakistani, Black African, Black Caribbean, Black Other, Irish, Traveller, Mixed Ethnic Group, Bangladeshi, Chinese, Other

Disability

The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 defines a disabled person as someone with a physical or mental impairment which has a substantive and long-term adverse effect on his/her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.

Having read this definition do you consider that you are a disabled person or that you have a disability? - Yes/No
If 'Yes', state the nature of the disability Dyslexia, Learning difficulty, Blind/Partially sighted, Deaf/Hard of hearing, Mobility (Physical impairment), Personal care support, Mental health difficulties, Long-term health condition, Learning disability, Cognitive impairment, Multiple disabilities, Other

Community Background

To demonstrate our commitment to equality of opportunity in employment we need to monitor the community background of applicants and employees, as required by the Fair Employment and Treatment (NI) Order 1998. Regardless of whether we practice religion, most of us in Northern Ireland are seen as either Roman Catholic or Protestant.

Please indicate your community background - Protestant Community, Roman Catholic Community, Neither

If Neither - Please provide names and addresses of the primary/preparatory and secondary schools, which you attended

If you do not complete this section we are encouraged to use the ‘residuary method’ of monitoring, which means that we can make a determination on the basis of personal information on file or your application form.

Religious Belief

In order to ensure that our records are correct, please indicate your Religious Belief - Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Jewish, Buddhist, None, Other

If 'Other', please specify

Dependants

We understand persons with dependants to be those with personal responsibility for the care of a child, the care of a person with an incapacitating disability and/or the care of a dependant elderly person.

Do you have dependants? Yes/No

If 'Yes', the dependent(s) are a Child, Adult, Person with an incapacitating disability, Other type of caring responsibility

If 'Other', please specify

Sexual Orientation

My sexual orientation is towards someone of - The same sex, A different sex, The same and of the opposite sex, Declined to answer

Comments

[kuzibah.livejournal.com]

Wow. And I thought our adoption applications were intrusive. And Irish and White are different ethnicities? And what's "Traveller"?

[simonf.livejournal.com]

Historically they were called gyspies or tinkers. Travellers is the proper way to call them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Traveller (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Traveller)

[kuzibah.livejournal.com]

Ah, thank you. I'd count them as white, also, myself.

[thestormcellar.livejournal.com]

I was going to make some kind of comment about the Protestant/Catholic community question, but I'm too confused as to why they need to know to think of anything else to say. I'm assuming it has something to do with the Protestant/Catholic scuffles Ireland continues to have?

[simonf.livejournal.com]

Yes indeed. Historically Catholics faced discrimination when applying for jobs in Northern Ireland. At the moment some believe that the Protestants now get discriminated.

[rleyser.livejournal.com]

I love filling this out as I totally skew the stats. I am not Catholic or Protestant and they've never heard of any of my schools!

I've actually never filled out this very long form, since I haven't applied for any jobs. I suppose I could make myself fill one out to run my company, to make sure I am not discriminating against myself. :o)

[phyrelight.livejournal.com]

Wow. I've been filling out a lot of job applications lately. On the forms here in the US, you are sometimes asked to fill out some information to be collected anonymously, and they're only asking for an age range (16-24, 25-34, etc.), gender, ethnic origin (White (non-Hispanic), African American, Hispanic, Native American, Asian, Other), and marital status (single, married, divorced, widowed). Not one question vaguely asks if you are homosexual. Yet. And, I thought that was intrusive!