£38,000 job ad: Only Indians wanted

A JOB advertisement seeking an applicant “preferably of Indian origin” provoked fury yesterday when it appeared on a British website.

The job advertisement has sparked a racism investigation The job advertisement has sparked a racism investigation

The advert for the £38,000-a-year post was branded “quite clearly racist” by angry campaigners.

They claimed it showed anti-British discrimination and urged the equalities watchdog to launch an immediate investigation.

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A Bristol-based computer company said it was looking for someone with a minimum of six years experience in IT and added: “The person should be a UK citizen with security clearance from the UK Government. Preferably of Indian origin.”

The ad has since been withdrawn but IT consultant Vince Silva, who read it, said: “I think it is appalling that applicants could be discriminated against in this way.

“It raises a question about the way some British companies are bringing in workers instead of recruiting them here.”

Mr Silva, from Chepstow, Gwent, added: “We all know that times are tough in the recession, and surely we should be doing more to help our own people.

“I’m not knocking the workers from India – they can do a good job. It’s the companies that should examine what they’re doing.”

His local MP, Conservative David Davies, said: “This is quite clearly racist.

“I have reported it to the Equalities and Human Rights Commission in the hope for once that they might take action against something that discriminates against most British people.”

The MP for Monmouth added: “I call on the Equality and Human Rights Commission to show some resolute action.”

Recruitment agency McGregor Boyall Associates has pulled the ad from website jobsite.co.uk.

Its managing director Laurie Boyle said: “This was an error – a bad one, but the first of its kind we have made in 22 years.

“It was cut and pasted from material sent to us by a client in India. We have begun a review of all our systems to see what we can do to stop something like this happening.”

The advert was for IT firm Torry Harris, which has bases in Bristol and the Indian city of Bangalore. It declined to comment. A spokeswoman for jobsite.co.uk said: “We take steps to ensure that only responsible advertisers can upload advertisements.

“We don’t check their content – that would slow down the process of getting them online for potential applicants to see.

“Under the contract we have with advertisers, they take total responsibility for the contents.”

A spokeswoman for the Advertising Standards Authority said it would refer the case to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which last night said it would be looking into the matter.

Earlier this week a supermarket supplier was accused of discriminating against British workers after insisting recruits for production line jobs at a factory in East Anglia must speak Polish.

Critics said it was “almost certainly illegal” while others claimed it exposed a culture of discrimination against Britons in favour of migrant workers, who typically earn only half as much.

Cooked meats contractor Forza AW, who placed the ad, said it had been an “error”.

But it dealt a further blow to Labour’s promise of “British jobs for British workers”, which was undermined last year when it emerged Portuguese and Italian labourers would be given jobs building the £200million Lindsey oil refinery in Lincolnshire.

Hundreds protested with wildcat strikes, claiming Prime Minister Gordon Brown had gone back on his pledge to protect UK jobs.

The row was reignited when Polish and Spanish workers were hired to build power stations in Nottinghamshire and Kent.

Derek Simpson, the Unite union’s joint general secretary, said at the time: “UK labour must be given a fair chance.”

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