[Anonymous]

[Sparepocket]

http://news.aol.co.uk/main-news/story/ex-ba-man-guilty-of-terror-plot/1621754/

[Bucksnet]

Sadly BA employ people like this to meet ‘quotas’ and avoid accusations of ‘racism’ and such like.

There are millions of British people unemployed and the law forces companies to employ foreigners. Most countries in the world pass laws to ensure that their own people are given priority and if employers cannot find a suitable person they are then allowed to employ immigrants, sometimes after having to apply and get a licence. The UK passes laws against the best interests of its own people. FACT.

I doubt this guy will be deported at the end of his sentence and will probably spend the rest of his life on benefits due to his unemployability.

[NTarrant]

There are no “quota” laws which the likes of BA or other companies have to comply with in the UK. There is a difference between discrimination and quotas. The law does not force anyone to employ foreigners

[Bucksnet]

NTarrant, I never said quota laws, but a lot of companies have policies in place like this.

As regards the law, the Race Relations Act states that employers cannot discriminate because of race, which I agree with, but also that they cannot discriminate because of nationality, which means that foreigners have to be considered equally. Most other country’s laws protect their citizens in this regard, but ours do not.

[Potakas]

So what BA should have done????

Sorry Sir you are Muslim and we don’t hire people like you?

Actually all the major companies on all industries mention very loud that non of the candidates should include in their CV (when they apply for a job), nationality and DOB details.

If he is a terrorist this is police’s job to find it out and not BA’s, BA can check someone before hiring him but there are not many things to do about that. If no-one proved that you are guilty, then you are innocent and this is a democracy’s privilege .

[Bucksnet]

P.Sepsas, no one is suggesting religious discrimination, but this guy is not British and as such employers cannot do background checks as much as they could with a CRB check on a British person.

In an industry such as aviation the upmost care should be taken when recruiting staff, and at least with people born in Britain, a full CRB check can and should be done. It is much harder, if not impossible to check the backgrounds of foreign nationals, especially from third world countries.

[Potakas]

Yes I am aware, he is from Bangladesh (if i remember correct).

I wanted to say that it is not BA’s fault that he wanted to be a terrorist. There are laws beyond BA’s control which they force BA to hire someone, irrespective from where he comes from.

[Bucksnet]

“There are laws beyond BA’s control which they force BA to hire someone, irrespective from where he comes from.”

Yes, that is the problem!

[snowman]

NTarrent – correct – there are no quota laws, but there is pressure on companies to reflect ethnic diversity in their employment processes. In these times, it must be viewed as naive to believe that there are not some from other ethnic backgrounds who reflect the beliefs and ambitions of those backgrounds

[Sparepocket]

On my numerous trips to and around the US I have yet to see Security stations being manned by Asian or Arabic Muslims and let’s be honest, the US does have a significant Asian/Arabic Muslim population.
Rather than saying the US government/authorities is/are blatantly discriminating against these ethnicities/religions, I think we should just accept that it is being pro-active and preventing further catastrophes.
It would be very interesting to hear (from frequent travellers) about how Security stations at airports worldwide (excluding the MENA region, Iran, Pakistan, and Indonesia) are manned.
On a recent flight to the US I couldn’t help but notice the thick irony of the bizarre situation in which an Asian Muslim of Pakistani descent was quizzing me and, later at the gate, I was singled out by another similar chap (this time of Bangladeshi descent) for a more detailed search. The irony emanating from the fact that these are precisely the sort of people Homeland Security and the US government agencies in charge of combating terrorism look out for and robustly question upon arrival in the US.

[NTarrant]

There are no laws in the UK which say you have to employ foreign nationals of any kind or any quotas. There are discrimination laws which means you can not discriminate against ethnic minorities which is completely different to “having to” or “quotas”. Employers are free to employ people from EU states on production of passport. Others have to have the correct working permits and visas. When this guy applied for a job at BA he would have had to produce the correct documentation and BA would have checked that through the National Insurance check to ensure its not duff.

Turning to Sparepocket’s question, certainly in the UAE only Emiraties get to be police, customs officers and even revenue protection on the buses and metro.

[TominScotland]

Thanks, NTarrant, for bring a degree of sanity to what was becoming a xenophobic and racist rant that ill behoves normal, lively but rational debate in this Forum. Its difficult to understand how subscribers to this Forum who, presumably, make their living through business engagement with a wide range of cultures and traditions, can loose sight of reality in this manner!

As NTarrant points out, there is absolutely no evidence that BA adopted anything other than normal recruitment and selection policies in appointing this person – in other words, he was the best qualified and most suitable of those eligible for employment. BA will have complied with normal criteria in employing a non-EU national and, if this person was not automatically eligible to work in the UK, would have had to demonstrate that no alternative was available within the UK/ EU labour markets.

Its also worth reflecting that the UK depends heavily on its migrant workforce across a wide range of skills areas, even in times of recession, and this dependence will grow significantly in the future. Also bear in mind that a nationality bar is no insurance against terrorism as we have seen in many of the cases that have ended tragically or come to court in this country and in the US.

So please, can we have rational discussion here and leave what we have seen above to the letters column of the tabloid newspapers?

[MartynSinclair]

I am fast approaching that age where I am beginning to consider early retirement and am looking at my options. Whilst I am passionate about my work, I travel far too much and am looking for that midlife career change.

One of my options was to look at work around Heathrow and Gatwick. I have previously mentioned that I am a current airside pass holder (all areas) at LHR

I have researched the net and various agencies and have learnt the following.

There are certainly no quotas involved by the airlines or airports when hiring. In fact if you look at cabin crew and pilots most are UK nationals where families have been in the UK for more than 2 generations.

The catchement area for Heathrow for example, Hounslow, Hillingdon etc are filled with immigrants (I have no research whether to add legal or illegal) but the majority of people within catchment areas to work at the airport can not be described as long standing members of the Tory party or CBI.

Hence, the type of people who tend to apply for jobs at the airports, whether security or other work, come from demographic groups described in earlier posts.

Baggage handlers and airport workers tend to view the positions as jobs as appose to careers. There is a difference between a “job” and a “career” and I would suggest that most of the positions being spoken about in this thread are “jobs”.

Mention of the TSA and lack of ethnic minorities within the USA airport system was made. I dont necerssairly agree but the 2 major differences between the TSA and the UK airport security teams are:

1. TSA is a career and screening for job applicants appears to be far more onerous.

2. There are many agenecies who are paid commission to attract and place security staff at UK airports and this by the sheer nature, attracts peole looking for jobs. part time or otherwise.

There was talk on another thread about the lack of “white faces” (if anybody finds this comment offensive, I immediately apologize and will edit with a suitable alternative) at the border control/immigration desks. However, searching the website, there are no positions available and there is no hiring available at either the ports or the airports.

Commuting to “Heathrow City” is not exactly easy and once there, parking can also be an issue. Public transport is not exactly cheap.

Now, here’s the most contencious part of the post.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201011/cmpublic/identity/memo/mid06.htm

Its easier for a foreign national to get work at airports becasue unlike a British national whose murder or rape conviction could be seen, a foreign national’s cant be seen as there is no way to check.

So, when the question at the top of the thread is asked, “Should airlines and airport security companies employ such people?” Of course the answer is NO. However, until UK PLc decides to treat foreign nationals the same way as UK nationals where screenig is concenred, then this situation will continually occur.

Just before anyonbe does start to accuse me of racsim, which this post certainly was not intended to be, I too come from an ethnic minority background.

[TominScotland]

Interesting stuff, Martyn. This guy was employed to work for BA in Newcastle – hardly Heathrow City. I also suspect that a significant majority of those living within the Heathrow catchment area are second and third generation migrants and certainly legally entitled to work there.

[Author]

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