A civil liberties group has called on the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) to investigate a recruitment firm that Personnel Today revealed was breaking the law by only taking on graduates from a “visibly non-white background”.
Rare Recruitment changed the wording on its website as a result of our investigation and has declared that it is now “open to all”, but specialising in ethnic minority candidates.
Gerald Hartup, director of Liberty and Law, said that the change in Rare Recruitment’s online guidelines indicated “that there has been a serious problem with the company’s policy” on candidates.
In his submission to the CRE, he said: “The headline allegation made by Personnel Today makes it particularly important that this is undertaken as a matter of urgency given the high profile of Rare Recruitment and its advisory board.”
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Members of the advisory board include Trevor Phillips, chairman of the CRE, and Sandra Kerr, national director of Race for Opportunity.
In a letter to Personnel Today (published in full on page 12), Sir David Bell, director for people at publisher Pearson and chairman of Rare Recruitment’s advisory board, insisted that all the board members were opposed to positive discrimination and the company had an important contribution to make.
