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"Finding a house wasn't going to be easy for a brown-skinned couple. Realtors would "forget" appointments or make hasty exits when my parents walked into their offices." -Michele Norris (pg. 13)

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A report published today by the all-party parliamentary group on race and community, focussing on black, Pakistani and Bangladeshi female workers, has uncovered racial discrimination and other barriers at the recruitment stage.

The inquiry also found that many job applicants of ethnic minority had changed their name or appearance to try to overcome prejudices - and when they did their scope for getting a job increased.

Of course, discrimination can take place not just because of your race. Your rights are set out in the Equality Act 2010 and an employer cannot discriminate on the basis of "protected characteristics" set out in the act, which include your race, sex, disability and sexual orientation.

But what are your legal rights if you think your prospective employer has discriminated against you at the interview stage, and what practical steps can you take?

Your first thought may be that although you have suspicions, it will be impossible to prove that prejudices have been the reason for you not getting an interview or being offered the job. There is, however, something you can do. An individual who thinks he or she has been discriminated against at interview stage is able to serve upon the employer a discrimination questionnaire under the Equality Act 2010, which allows them to effectively "grill" the employer about their treatment.

A questionnaire is most useful when you are not sure if there are sufficient grounds to bring a discrimination claim and need to elicit further information from the employer. The form already includes some standard questions such as asking the employer to what extent it agrees with your version of events; what their own version of events is; and if the employer accepts that the treatment of you was unlawful - and if they don't, why not?

The form also has a blank box for you to ask additional questions. You could, for example, ask questions about the selection criteria used by the employer; exactly how the candidates were scored on those criteria; why you were rejected; and the reason the successful candidate was appointed. You are also able to obtain relevant statistical information about the employer such as a breakdown of its workforce or other job applicants by their ethnic profile.

Employers are not obliged to reply to a questionnaire, or a particular question raised, but if they do not or their answers are evasive - and this is very important - the tribunal may in any subsequent proceedings draw an inference that the employer has discriminated against them.

You may submit the questionnaire at any time, although certain time limits apply if you have already commenced tribunal proceedings, and the employer has up to eight weeks to respond.

Will the service of a discrimination questionnaire get you the job you weren't offered in the first place? No, of course not. And it may not get you the next job either if it is discovered you have taken proceedings against a previous company for discriminating against you at interview stage.

But it is nevertheless a right of redress and may be an important tool for applicants who deserve to be offered a position based on their skills and qualifications, but have faced the prejudices of discriminating employers.

Have you felt you have been discriminated against when applying for a job? Did the employer say or do anything to confirm your suspicions?

* Philip Landau is an employment lawyer at Landau Zeffertt Weir Solicitors
Topics

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Fighting discrimination at job interview

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A report published today by the all-party parliamentary group on race and community, focussing on black, Pakistani and Bangladeshi female workers, has uncovered racial discrimination and other barriers at the recruitment stage. The inquiry also found that many job applicants of ethnic minority had changed their name or appearance to try to overcome prejudices - and when they did their scope for getting a job increased.

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"My parents moved in within a week, and the white families whose property line touched ours soon put their homes up for sale."

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(CNN) -- Black employees at a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, waste transfer plant were harassed, humiliated and discriminated against by their supervisor for decades, says an attorney representing two workers who filed a complaint against the city.

Among the allegations in the complaint is that for decades, John Gill, the Northwest Transfer Station's superintendent, limited one restroom to whites only, said the attorney, Howard K. Trubman. The restroom -- which he called the "supervisors' bathroom" -- was supposedly for the sole use of upper-level officials with the city's Streets Department, Trubman said.

As far back as 1996, it became apparent to black employees that they were being slighted, said Trubman. They would watch white co-workers walk into the segregated bathroom, conveniently located one floor above Gill's office.

"If you tried to use the bathroom, you might get suspended," said Leslie Young, a former worker at the facility. Young, along with Gibson Trowery, who still works at the station, filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission in October 2007.

Young said he recalled that a lock was placed on the restroom door, with keys distributed only to white workers.

The restroom black workers could use was down five flights of stairs and was "not in the greatest condition," Trubman said. Some employees were forced to ask Gill's permission before they could make the trip, he said.

"It was very degrading and humiliating," said Young. "I saw it wreck peoples' home lives -- picking on you for nothing."

Gill, asked for comment Friday, referred CNN to his lawyers, saying, "If you want to write a fair story, wait for after the trial to finish writing it."

The city solicitor's office, which is defending the case, said, "We don't comment on allegations. ... Based on what we know, we have no reason to believe there is any merit, and that will come clear as the litigation proceeds."

Because the human relations commission was unable to resolve the complaint within a year, Young and Trowery had the option of filing the complaint in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, which they did.

In May, a Philadelphia judge dismissed a separate suit against Gill, leaving the complaint filed against the city intact.

Trubman said they are seeking Gill's dismissal and monetary damages. He expects a trial to begin by next summer.

The issue didn't end with the bathroom at the facility, which is a transfer station where garbage trucks bring citywide waste to be distributed to various landfills.

Black employees complained that they were stuck with the oldest garbage trucks. Whites, they say, were frequently upgraded to newer vehicles.

"Gill would hide the white drivers' keys and pretend that he didn't know where they were," Trowery said. "But I saw him keep the keys in his drawer."

According to Young, in the sweltering summer of 2007, Gill would only allow whites access to a water cooler kept in his barricaded office. Black employees were forced to use a water fountain elsewhere in the building.

"It made me feel like less of a man," said Young. "But I got kids, I got a mortgage. I'm a trash man. I have no college degree -- not too many places I'm going to get a job."

Young said he was a shop steward in 2006 and 2007. It was his job to inform Gill about unhappy workers, he said.

When he told Gill about some resentment felt by some of the employees, he said, Gill launched into a diatribe, saying those unhappy at "the Northwest Plantation Station" could leave.

"As a man I would have put my elbow down his throat," said Young. "You're not going to talk to me like that."

Another former employee at the facility, Walter Bingham, who worked there five years, said that every year on December 31 white workers would be allowed to schedule their vacation times for the coming year, leaving black employees with limited choices.

The problems persisted for more than a decade, Trubman contends. Black workers, led by Young, began to document instances of discrimination in 1999, he said.

"We spent most of our day calming each other down," Young said. "We had people running to his office. [But] everybody has homes and pensions and kids."

Tension between white and black workers ran deep, Young said; the two groups would stick to themselves and hardly spoke.

All About Racial Issues * Philadelphia

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Philadelphia workers file racial discrimination case

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(CNN) -- Black employees at a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, waste transfer plant were harassed, humiliated and discriminated against by their supervisor for decades, says an attorney representing two workers who filed a complaint against the city. Among the allegations in the complaint is that for decades, John Gill, the Northwest Transfer Station's superintendent, limited one restroom to whites only, said the attorney, Howard K.

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" It hurts to recall my response; I, like my father, had reached beyond anger to offer conciliation instead"

-Michele Norris

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Me: "Thank you for calling C** Technologies, how can I help?"

Customer, very irate: "Yeah! I didn't pay my internet bill and now its saying my account is suspended and I want to know why!"

Me: "Okay, you didn't pay your bill, we suspended your account and you would like to know why?"

Customer: "Yes! Why? Why did you suspend it?"

Me: "Alright, let me take a look here...my system shows it suspended the account because you didn't pay the last bill we sent."

Customer: "I know I didn't pay the bill! Have a little f**king sympathy here! Are you customer service??"

Me: "I'm tech support."

Customer: "Where is customer service at?!?"

Me: "Our billing department handles all our customer service issues, I'll transfer you down to them."

Customer: "You're acting like a real a**hole you know that? You need to have more empathy for people!"

Me, in the most uppity happy-go-lucky voice ever conceived; I almost gagged from bringing so much joy up: "You have yourself a fabulously sunshine-filled day, sir!"

Customer: "WHATS YOUR F**KING NA-" *click*
(Gotta love that transfer button...)

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Kill Them With Kindness - Funny Quotes & True Stories

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Me: "Thank you for calling C** Technologies, how can I help?" Customer, very irate: "Yeah! I didn't pay my internet bill and now its saying my account is suspended and I want to know why!" Me: "Okay, you didn't pay your bill, we suspended your account and you would like to know why?"

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"Before she got to the landing, a long-haired teenager came whooshing down, zoomed through the living room, and zipped right out the front door"

-Michele Norris

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A Wallingford homeowner caught a female intruder in the act of burglarizing her Harrison Road home on Friday morning and police have since arrested the woman and an accomplice who fled the scene in a car.

Jenny Morales, 43, and Daniel Aquino-Ramirez, 21, both from Bridgeport, are facing multiple burglary charges.

A Wallingford resident called 911 to report that she had "just interrupted a burglary at her home," police said in a news release. The homeowner caught a female burglar by surprise when she came home and fled into a waiting vehicle upon seeing the resident.

After Wallingford police shared a description of the getaway vehicle and the license plate number to area police departments and State Police, a North Haven police officer spotted a car matching the description on the southbound side of Interstate 91. Police stopped the car in New Haven and took Morales and Aquino-Ramirez into custody. The homeowner positively identified both of them.

Police charged both Morales and Aquino-Ramirez with second-degree burglary, conspiracy to commit second-degree burglary, criminal attempt to commit sixth-degree larceny and conspiracy to commit sixth-degree larceny.

Police held Morales on a $200,000 bond and Aquino-Ramirez on a $100,000 bond. They are both scheduled to appear in Meriden Superior Court on Sept. 12.

Morales also was wanted on two separate outstanding arrest warrants, including violation of probation, third-degree burglary and first-degree failure to appear out of Norwalk and third-degree larceny and first-degree failure to appear out of Bridgeport, police said. She is scheduled to appear in court in Norwalk for those charges on Sept. 9.

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Homeowner Interrupts Burglary At Wallingford House

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A Wallingford homeowner caught a female intruder in the act of burglarizing her Harrison Road home on Friday morning and police have since arrested the woman and an accomplice who fled the scene in a car. Jenny Morales, 43, and Daniel Aquino-Ramirez, 21, both from Bridgeport, are facing multiple burglary charges.

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"Here is the conundrum of racism. You know it's there, but you can't prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, how it colors a particular situation"

-Michele Norris

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I struggled regarding writing a column about the recent events in Missouri. Quite a few highly qualified columnists have commented.

As a kid who from 10 years old on grew up in east-central Minnesota, I am woefully unqualified to speak to civil rights, but here goes.

Minnesota citizens, friends and family just buried a Mendota Heights police officer who was killed in the line of duty a month ago. Flags flew at half-mast and law enforcement comrades came from all over the state to pay their respects. We honored who he was and the work that is done each and every day by police officers.

Just 450 miles south of Rochester in the community of Ferguson, Mo., the police are not looked at as heroes right now. Many protests have been held regarding the tragic death of a young black man.

I had truly hoped that my grandchildren would not have to see rioting over racial issues. They would not have to see stores looted and businesses burned like we did as baby boomers in the '60s.

I can try to explain prejudice to my grandchildren. I can tell the stories of what I saw while living in Alabama as a young boy. The history will be there for them to read about the difficult journey of the black American.

The majority of us understand that there is a line that a law enforcement officer can't cross, can't go over. I know this, not as a police officer, but as an individual who has worked in corrections for close to 38 years.

I can recall years ago fighting to regain control of a prison cell block that had erupted in destruction, fires being set and rioting. As three or four of us took down a detainee who was fighting us, we gained control of him.

Our group thought he had a razor blade in his mouth, which could be used as a weapon. One of the staff starting banging the inmate's head against the concrete floor and telling him to open his mouth. I spoke up and it was not well received. I yelled at him to stop. The line was being crossed.

It seems that at one moment we see our police as champions and the next moment we look at them with hate. In my opinion, when something goes wrong, the immediate focus is on law enforcement and "What did they do wrong?"

If that line is crossed, if something was done wrong, there are consequences and there should be. All who are in the law enforcement field understand this. Any officer who exceeded his or her authority will be disciplined or prosecuted. When the line is spanned, maybe a life is taken. Families of someone killed are impacted forever.

The standards, integrity and code of conduct in law enforcement is high. I saw many step over the line in my career in corrections. At times it was over more routine issues such as staff bringing in objects to inmates or having an inappropriate relationship with them. A job, a career, and possibly one's family is lost.

Every year those of us at the Federal Medical Center were trained on what unique situations would permit deadly force. We were trained in what is unacceptable to do in our jobs. We were reminded of integrity, understanding diversity and cultural differences and taught to treat all the same - with fairness and dignity.

I have not faced the difficulties that police face every single day. I have never fought someone actually fearing for my life. When hand-to-hand combat ensues, I imagine that those printed words in the procedure manuals can get blurry.

At this point we do not know all the facts of this tragic incident. Those who cared about Michael Brown hoped the protests would be peaceful but initially they erupted into violence.

I talked to Dr. Steve Norton, Criminal Psychologist who I worked with at the Federal Medical Center. Our belief is that the individuals that started to destroy, burn and loot did not care about Michael Brown.

This did not honor him or his family. This is what I will tell my grandchildren if they ask me. Destroying part of your own neighborhood doesn't make sense and people who did this don't care about what happened.

Some things have improved over the decades. Leadership has transformed. As I observe this incident, we have statements and a response from the president, our attorney general and the captain of the Missouri Highway State Patrol who is in charge of security in Ferguson. All black men.

A process is in place to review what happened. Dr. Norton stated he wished that racial injustice did not have to be the first assumption, yet in ways, I can't help but understand and grasp these deep and difficult judgments.

Let's hope the investigation is done thoroughly, findings are right and just and each recommendation regarding other possible variables such as more minority hiring or training is acted upon. How can we encourage young black men to want to join the law enforcement community and help with solutions?

Finally, not totally related here, but the last two years I have volunteered in my granddaughter's classroom at Bamber Valley Elementary School. Her classmates are a remarkable diverse group of young boys and girls. When I see them laughing and learning together, it gives me hope for the future.

My hope is that my grandchildren's generation will not dislike those who are different from them, they will not see color, they will only see friends.

Loren Else lives in Rochester and also writes the Post-Bulletin's "Day in History" column. Send comments and column ideas to Loren at news@postbulletin.com.

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Boomer Grandpa: Ferguson, Mo., is a dismal picture, but hope remains

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I struggled regarding writing a column about the recent events in Missouri. Quite a few highly qualified columnists have commented. As a kid who from 10 years old on grew up in east-central Minnesota, I am woefully unqualified to speak to civil rights, but here goes.