UKH

I'm trying to find a concise statement of what can and can't be (legally) put into job ads within an EU country. In particular, interested in if you can specify restrictions in terms of age, gender or race.

You'd think that this wouldn't be too hard to find (maybe it isn't and I'm just thick) but after 30 mins of trawling through lots of waffly EU crap from the ec.europa.eu (and other) web resources I haven't been able to find anything that specifically states that you can't put such restrictions in job ads (although various bits hinting that you can't).

Plenty of well laid out summaries for the UK out there, but not able to find anything that is generally applicable to EU countries. Anyone able to point me to a URL with this sort of info?

Anyone able to help before I head off to binge on some scotch would have my undying gratitude - well, for at least 10 minutes or so.

In reply to Scotch Bingington:

Discrimination doesn't happen in the EU, and the bureaucracy there is minimal. It's a socialist paradise and all that.

In reply to Scotch Bingington:

There isn't a specific EU law covering all countries in that way, but you have individual countries with their own rules, all of which comply with EU legislation as a minimum. Given it's a case of 'discrimination' chances are all countries apply the same standards in that the minimum is as high as it reasonably gets, so that stuff you found regarding the UK is probably also what applies in all other EU countries..

The things you have to look for if you want to look into it is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_Equality_Directive_2000 , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equality_Framework_Directive_2000 , and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal_Treatment_Directive_2006

In reply to Mr Lopez:

Thanks for the links.

In reply to Scotch Bingington:

Bare in mind also, the fact that putting things like age, sex gender or race or indeed many other protected characteristics is not necessarily discrimination. It is perfectly OK for example to advertise for dark skinned actor to play dark skinned roles in films.

The general principle to avoid discrimination is to avoid using terms which directly or indirectly discriminate against those who are protected under law.

For example you cannot state males only, or no females, if you were advertising for an employee to work as a scaffolder for example. Nor should you state things which might discriminate, such as : "Strong person/s" wanted. It is however perfectly acceptable to state simple facts such as "Must be able to lift metal tubing which weights up to and including 22kg", because that is a genuine occupational need.