Virgin Blue Recruitment Discrimination Case

Case Study 6.1 Virgin Blue Recruitment

1. The complaint-ants claim that they were discriminated

against by age while undergoing recruitment selection for

Virgin Blue airlines as hostesses. They claim that the

recruitment/assessment process targeted younger recruits

and by this, they were unable to effectively display the

required skills for the positions.

As outlined in the case brief, quote;

"Rather, it is alleged that in its recruitment process,

the respondent during the relevant period has consciously

or unconsciously through a subjective assessment process,

adopted an age criteria in fact which prevented the complainants

being fairly considered for employment"

This has been confirmed in findings by Tribunal member Douglas Savage,

"Douglas Savage found in this case the behavioral competency

testing did not produce an age neutral result", Loudon p.150

Evidence entered by the claimants that Virgin portrayed images

of youthful employees, and promoted the sexy, or 'fun' image of the company

via magazine advertisements was dismissed by Douglas Savage. It was

found that the promotional images were the responsibility of the

magazines editor, and not that of Virgin's publicity dept.

The claimants also claim that the assessors were influenced by,

and appeared to be impressed by, or at the least, related to, the younger

applicants. However this was further dismissed by Douglas Savage. The mind

set of those assessing cannot be confirmed.

3. Recruitment processes are many and varied, but relevant current standards

dictate a necessity to constantly address equity in employment.

With this in mind, Virgin needs to apply a new recruitment assessment

procedure, or incorporate a few different recruiting selection techniques.

Virgin's reliance on group assessments to discover potential recruits

suitable attributes for their company was very limiting. The use of other tests

to ascertain required criteria would prove more...