By V4 Agency
A job posting by a Muslim supermarket soon to be opened has triggered a general outcry. The notice says women should not apply, even though the Labour Code explicitly prohibits any type of discrimination based on religion or gender.
A vacancy notice posted by a Muslim supermarket soon to be opened in the southern French city of Perpignan has provoked a general outcry. The notice, shared in a Facebook group, openly states that the employer will not accept women’s applications for the post of cashier and stock assistant in the store.
The job posting published by the Ibrahim store – full of typos and grammatical inaccuracies – shows that they are seeking to find 5 Muslim individuals for the jobs they advertise. They add that if they happened to find the right people ahead of Ramadan, they will adjust their work schedules for the upcoming holiday. We can also learn from the notice that the store prefers disadvantaged or disabled applicants and those who, having been unemployed for a while now, rely on the state-sponsored solidarity income. The active solidarity income (RSA) is a supplementary wage subsidy to be claimed by low-income individuals following the termination of their unemployment benefit.
The notice has also caught the attention of Perpignan Mayor Louis Aliot, who took to social media to announce that his city will not tolerate such discrimination int he workplace. He called on the government to take resolute action and end this type of unacceptable exclusion.
The notice was removed from the Facebook group soon after it had been posted and its members have come up with a number of explanations and excuses. The administrators apologised to all those who found the content of the vacancy notice offensive, adding that they did a hasty job publishing the ad, without cross-checking its content. Their aim is to help everyone, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, they noted.
According to L’Indépendant, the regional daily newspaper covering the story, the notice is not only discriminative, but it is also illegal, as Article L.1132-1 of the French Labour Code explicitly bans any type of discrimination by prospective employers and/or companies – whether gender- or religion-based – during the hiring process.