JB Hi-Fi under fire for controversial job application question
“How do they get past the discrimination act? I don’t understand.”
JB Hi-Fi has come under fire after popular career coach and content creator Tammie Ballis took aim at a question on one of their job applications.
The compulsory question, found on an application for a Christmas Casual role, asked job seekers to select the cultural background or ethnicity they most identify with, from a list of options.
Now, Aussies have been left wondering how this is okay.
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“It’s making candidates worry and think twice”
Tammie Ballis took to TikTok this week to share a screenshot from a JB Hi-Fi job application.
The screenshot highlighted a controversial question, ‘What cultural background or ethnicity do you most identify with?’, with a list of possible answers to choose from, including Indian, Asian, and European.
In her video, which now has over 100 000 views, Tammie said this kind of question was completely unacceptable.
But, speaking to Kidspot, she said she sees questions like this one ‘very frequently’, particularly in big businesses, blaming it on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) requirements.
“DEI comes from a good place. There was a time where people didn’t want to hire gay or lesbian people. There was a time that people didn’t want to hire Aboriginal people,” she explained.
“DEI fixed all of that, but now it’s gone too far, and, especially in a tough job market, it’s making candidates worry and think twice, because it’s like, ‘If I hit the wrong button, am I not going to be the one that they want, because of the colour of my skin, or because of my ethnic background?”
Tammie emphasised her concerns around how limiting the tick-boxes were, asking applicants to potentially choose just one of multiple cultural backgrounds they identify with, or choose something more broad that they don’t feel accurately represents who they are.
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Is this legal?
In the hundreds of comments on Tammie’s video, the biggest question from viewers was clear - is this legal?
Tammie was just as concerned.
“How do they get past the discrimination act? I don’t understand,” she said.
“When you’re applying for a job, if you can prove that you’ve been discriminated against, and that’s the reason why you didn’t get a job, you can take legal action. However, how are you going to prove it?
“When you’re categorising people for a tick box, how can you prove that, ‘Oh they didn’t pick me because I hit European’, or ‘They didn’t pick me because I’m New Zealander’.”
There is no suggestion that any negative steps have been taken by JB Hi-Fi with the responses, but there concerns around it being asked at all.
Sydney lawyer Avinash Singh explained to Kidspot that though the question can be asked, there needs to be a genuine reason for it.
“While an employer can ask the race or ethnicity of a prospective applicant, they need to have a genuine reason for asking this question, which is not linked to whether they will hire the applicant,” he shared.
“This is because Section 8 of the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 makes it unlawful for an employer to discriminate against an applicant on the grounds of race. This extends to the arrangements the employer makes for determining who should be offered employment, who is in fact offered employment and the terms of that employment offer.”
Avinash noted that even if there are a number of reasons why an employer doesn’t hire a person, if one of those reasons relates to race, they would be found to have discriminated against them - even if it’s not the dominant reason.
“In the present case, JB Hi-Fi would need to have very clear and cogent reasoning for why they are asking for the race or ethnicity of applicants,” he continued.
“This reasoning cannot have any connection to whether the applicant is given the job or not. In the absence of this reasoning, if a suitably qualified applicant were refused employment, they could allege that their race was used to discriminate against them.”
What should you do?
For businesses who have questions like this in their job applications, Tammie has one simple suggestion - get rid of it.
“I would tell them to sort out their recruitment process and hire people based on merit, because you are giving the wrong message, and you’re telling people, ‘We only hire based on DEI’,” she said.
“You’re giving entitlement to people who think that they should be hired based on DEI, that shouldn’t be the case either.”
And for those concerned about coming up against a question like this, Tammie assured that you wouldn’t be unjustified in walking away.
“The application process is a window into what it’s going to be like working for that business,” she said.
“If they don’t like it, pull out. Don’t apply.”
It is understood that applicants can also choose the option ‘prefer not to say’ on this particular application, if they do not wish to provide this information.
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Originally published as JB Hi-Fi under fire for controversial job application question
