Employers 'fail minorities test'

COMPANIES are ignoring government pleas to set numerical targets for the employment of people from ethnic minorities, writes Barrie Clement.

Many organisations fear setting targets will be seen as a 'quota' and form unlawful discrimination against whites.

Industrial Relations Services found that only 15 per cent of 166 organisations they surveyed set targets for ethnic minorities in management posts. For all jobs, less than a third had a targeting policy and only a fifth were offering positive action training schemes for minority workers.

A dozen organisations said the recession and uncertainties about recruitment made it impossible to set targets.