UAE nursery faces backlash over ‘white skin’ teacher advert
▶ The Happy Jump Nurseries chain said its call for teachers of ‘European origin’ was to improve diversity
Companies regularly just state ‘European,’ and we know what they are getting at KEREN BOBKER Financial adviser
A nursery faces a backlash after posting a job advertisement seeking English teachers of “European origin and white skin”.
Happy Jump Nurseries, which has six kindergartens across the country, posted the advert on the Jobs in UAE Dubai Facebook page on Saturday.
It has since been removed. The principal at one of the nurseries said the advert was posted to increase diversity, and claimed she did not understand why some people had a problem with it.
Meera Aqwala, the principal of Happy Jump Nursery in Al Ain, said most of the company’s staff are black.
“We have many branches and there are maybe three [white people] in all of the branches,” she said.
“So we need only to put some white people in.
“They are very good, our black staff, and we will still hire them. But we need at least one white person.”
Ms Aqwala said parents always asked about nursery teachers’ nationalities.
In 2015, a federal law was brought in to stamp out discrimination of all kinds in the workforce. A call to the Ministry of Labour’s advice hotline yesterday confirmed such a job advert would breach that legislation.
But lawyers say the law may not extend to job advertisements. Nationality and gender-specific job adverts are widespread in parts of the UAE’s labour market.
Last month, The National reported how employers were missing out on hiring suitable candidates when listing positions calling for specific genders and nationalities, and often ended up hiring the wrong person as a result.
Toby Simpson, a former
Keren Bobker, an independent financial adviser and columnist for The National, said although it was “not uncommon” to see advertisements focusing on a candidate’s nationality, it was rarer to come across requests for a specific skin colour.
“That is why this particular advert has caused such a reaction,” Ms Bobker said.
“Companies regularly advertise asking for specific nationalities, or just state ‘European’, and we know what they are getting at.
“It still isn’t right to categorise people in this way.
“Nationality is often a code for a salary range but to be discriminating against someone for a skin colour, which doesn’t even always correlate to a nationality, seems even more unpleasantly personal,” she said.
The UAE is home to nationals of almost 200 countries who are employed across a variety of sectors. According to 2017 government data, the UAE’s workforce consists of 6.3 million people, about 77 per cent of the population.