on 30/1/01 9:23 pm, J. van Baardwijk at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> At 11:56 30-1-01 -0600, John Horn wrote:
>
>>> From: Sonja van Baardwijk-Holten [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
>>>
>>> All this is also why it was so difficult for me to find a
>>> good job in the first
>>> place. Being female, around 30, just married and without
>>> children is like a sign
>>> that says don't touch me, plague.
>>
>> This amazes me. With all the special protections you hear about in Europe,
>> I can't believe an employer can even ASK whether or not you are married or
>> if you have children.
>
> It's perfectly legal here for an employer to ask if you're married or if
> you have children. I'm not sure though if he's allowed to ask if you have
> wedding plans or are planning on having children. Even if he does ask, you
> can tell him whatever he wants to hear. You can tell him you don't have any
> plans regarding marriage or children; he won't know if you're lying or not.
>
> What an employer *can't* do, however, is refuse to hire you based on the
> fact that you want to get married and/or have children. That law doesn't
> stop them for not-hiring you based on that, though -- employers simply
> think up some other reason, like "we found a candidate that fits better in
> our team" or something like that.
>
Here (UK) small companies are exempt from quota based anti-discrimination
legislation, but large companies have to meet levels of employment for
groups that might otherwise suffer discrimination. My wife works for such a
company (> 100000 employees) and the personnel department obviously takes
great pleasure in killing two birds with one stone by hiring some people who
are both wheelchair-bound *and* members of ethnic minorities.
--
William T Goodall
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.wtgab.demon.co.uk
