aibu to wonder if interviews with the following questions in them can still exist in a universe where there are equal rights acts?

[lolaflores]

My friend had an interview today with a large (very large) company based in Ireland. In the course of the interview she was asked;
How many kids do you have
Are you married
How old are you
Can you manage the drive here (it is a semi rural setting)
Do you understand this is a full time job, not part time, like 9-5
Do you have child care arrangements
are you planning any more kids

seriously?
Suffice to say they did not offer her a second interview. I doubt she would have accepted it.
So when other threads give out about being a feminist and not and what have you, this makes we wonder if we have made any head way whatsoever. Or that certain improvements in some industries are taken a bit for granted and there are areas that are medieval in comparison.

It is illegal to ask some of those questions, but hand on heart if I was the owner of a small business and was looking for a new employee I'd want to know the answers to some of them. It might be wrong, but I think that anyone who doesn't understand why they might be relevent is burying their head in the sand. gets ready for a flaming

Erm though, would you ask a man the same question Ithink? because if you did then it wouldn't be wrong, but if you didn't then...errrmmmm....fetch me my flame throwers.

Sorry but why do you need to know those answers unless you intend to use them to make a decision ? And that decision is likely to favour a man - because that's what happens more often than not.

I say that as a Director of a SME - it's difficult juggling maternity leave but it's equally difficult juggling compassionate leave, sick leave etc. The sooner men start to use their entitlement to additional paternity leave and pull their weight with childcare the better. That way it won't be left to women. Workplaces need to find a better way of working that suits modern life for all employees, male or female, young or old, childfree or not.

Yeah Blistory yea, all of that

I didn't say that I would ask those questions, just that I can see why somneone would want to, and yes I would be interested in the same answers from a man, but it probably wouldn't sway my decision as much because whether we like it or not, women are more likely to take time off work to cover child care etc than a man, unless they make other arrangements (hence the question about childcare arrangements). I work for a large suermarket and frankly, some of the women take the p* with having time off for every cough and cold that their children have, it might be unpaid but it's a nightmare to cover at the short notice given in many cases. Why wouldn't an emplyer want to know that you had a contingency plan for those occassions that invariably will arise?

Ithink , Oh i see where you are coming from now.

If you work for a large supermarket I am pretty sure your employees are entitled to unpaid dependants' leave for a day or two to sort emergency childcare.

You do realise that unless people have local relatives, emergency childcare is very difficult to guarantee...

It is not illegal to ask those questions in the uk. But if the questions are asked and the applicant doesn't get the job then the applicant could bring a claim if they beloved they could demonstrate that they did not get the job due to the fact that they are female. The fact that the same questions are asked of a male does not prevent the discrimination claim from succeeding.

I made an official complaint when asked how I'd balance work and family life -having established the other candidates (a woman over 50 and a bloke) were not asked this question. Got an apology. Opted not to work there (partly because I expect more from my employers, but also because the episode was enough to surmise that there would be zero flexibility in the actual event of DCs being unwell etc)

I agree with the people who've said it's wrong but a good signal (well, a bad one!) of what the company would be like to work for. I was asked at interview once, very insistently, by an elderly male interviewer, whether I had adequate childcare arrangements. As I didn't have any children at the time, and in fact was undergoing infertility treatment, it was a bit of a red flag, and yet also slightly amusing, looking back, to have someone going on and on about a problem that was not even relevant. And it was a short term contract!

Oh, I forget to mention that the organisation concerned did not have a toilet for its employees, just a Portaloo (and no it was not a building site).

Illegal, yes, but in todays job market some employers just 'move the goalposts' . Someone may complain but what would happen? --anything? a slap on the wrist?

Jobs are like golddust, if you want/need one, when they say jump, you ask how high!

Like it or not its an employer market out there.

I was asked similar questions for a pretty senior position and I answered honestly and got the job. In fact, it was for a full time job, but I wanted part-time hours, which I got. Sometimes I think they just want to feel that you have thought about it. It was quite a chatty interview so I asked my interviewer a few of the questions back and found out a bit more about my future boss.

I do agree it puts an employer on dodgy ground and it can put the interviewee on the back foot. I could have made a fuss but I probably wouldn't have got the job. What I didn't know if these were standard questions they asked everybody, or just me. It was awkward, I had just resigned from my previous job at the end of maternity leave because they wouldn't give me part time hours so I didn't want to admit how young my child but the honesty was worth it.

3 years ago i had an interview in a shop (large high street chain) for a weekend job and was asked if my husband minded me working weekends and would he manage the children.

My friend was interviewed for the company I worked for at the time. My managers unofficial deputy took the interview (EPIC FAIL on the part of my manager!) as she voiced the unofficial company view with "Well, tbh we would always employ someone without children over someone who had them".

It was true, they would and did. I am not sure why they gave me a job when I had not just a child but a needy disable child! She wrote the MD stating what had been said and that she was considering legal action. The deputy got sacked!

It is worrying that some people here really do think that such discriminatory questions are legal. They are NOT:

www.safeworkers.co.uk/job-interview-questions-should-not-be-asked.html

Appalling to ask and awkward to answer/challenge..

Yes punkatheart wtf do you say to answer or challenge these horrible questions?? I am ridiculously honest (to my detriment) and I always end up answering and telling the truth and not getting the job

Especially difficult when you are interviewing in small companies-if you lie and say you have no/want no children and then get 'caught out' an employer can make your life a misery in so many ways :(

Slightly different thing but when me and DH were both signing on in the late "90s I was pulled to one side by a Jobcentre clerk and asked to sign a form saying i would consider part time work.
DH wasnt asked to sign any such thing.

Who to tell?

Well an employment rribunal for a start, she doesn't need to be emplyed. Then the equality comission.

Of course it's the right thing to do to report transgressions of the law. But now imagine that someone has just been given a interview - interviews have been rare and they are desperate for the job. Appear militant and the job won't be yours - so most people humbly answer the questions. Employers are exploiting the recession. Makes me mad.

punk it is simply NOT illegal to ask those questions per se (I am a lawyer, btw). It is however against the law to act in a discriminatory way in the workplace, so asking those questions is hugely risky for the employer (as well as unpleasant for the candidate). If two people are asked those questions and then treated differently, it is that treatment that is illegal. It is far more sensible not to ask them in the first place.

When I did interview training at my last firm, we were told a story about a lawyer who was showing a candidate out to the lift. She brought up that she was off to pick up her kids and they had a short conversation about her family. She didn't get the job. She then brought a claim against the firm for discrimination.

I understand the distinction, eurochick.....but as you say, discrimination of this type IS against the law....so by implication asking discriminatory questions leads to the breach. That was a sneaky thing about the sly question about that woman's family...it really is a minefield. Did she win her case, by the way? How stupid to try and trick a lawyer!

But punk it is misleading to tell people that the asking of the questions is illegal. It is not. What is unlawful is to discriminate against someone as a result of the fact that they are female. If someone is asked those questions and doesn't get the job then the fact that the questions have been asked may help the female to establish in tribunal that she did not get the job because she is female.