Submitted by: Submitted by adam007
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Category: Business and Industry
Date Submitted: 05/17/2011 11:01 PM
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...