Another unreliable 'PC gone mad' story

It was the lead story on the Mail website this morning:


It was on the front page of the Express:


And it also made the Star and Telegraph, although all four stories are suspiciously similar, with the same quotes in much the same order.

And as the first screenshot shows, the Mail story was gaining (unmoderated) comments by the hundred, almost all of them proclaiming it's 'political correctness gone mad'.

But is it?

Nicole Mamo, the Director of Devonwood Recruitment (which, conveniently, happens to get several mentions throughout all the articles...) tried to post a job ad for a cleaner. The last line read:

Must be reliable and hard-working.

Mamo claims when she phoned the JobCentre to check the advert was being displayed she was told it wouldn't be, because:

they could have cases against them for discriminating against unreliable people.

It doesn't sound very likely. But that's never stopped a 'PC gone mad' story before.

This one comes with an inevitable quote from the strange Campaign Against Political Correctness who say the whole situation is:

'absolutely ridiculous'.

Indeed. The Equality and Human Rights Commission, usually the baddies in stories such as this, say:

'This is in no way in breach of any discrimination law. Mrs Mamo should consider very unreliable any advice that she may have received implying that this aspect of her advert was discriminatory.'

Hmm. Now maybe 'Carol' does actually exist and maybe she did actually say this nonsense about not being able to use 'reliable'. But, if it's true, it's one person making a silly mistake. Hardly a 'diktat' as the Mail calls it.

And hardly something that seems worth the effort of contacting the press about. Unless, of course, you were running a recruitment company and wanted to get some free publicity.

Surely that couldn't be it?

Well, as usual, you need to scroll right to the end of the story to find the view from the other side. And what does the spokesperson from the Department of Work and Pensions say?

'We cannot comment about the phone call. I can confirm that we took the advert from the employer and put it onto our website. Every advert goes onto our website and onto the job points.

'Reliability is important to employers, as it is for Jobcentre Plus - and we welcome ads seeking reliable applicants.'

Oh.

So when the Telegraph and Express says the ad was 'banned', that's 'banned' in the sense that it was posted everywhere it was meant to appear.

And when the Star says the Job Centre refused to display the ad, what they meant was, they displayed the ad on the internet and on the JobPoints.

In the end - the Equality people say there's no problem with using 'reliable', the DWP says there is no problem with using 'reliable' and this advert was posted where it was supposed to be posted.

So what's the story here?

(Chris Spann's take on the Mail article is available here)