Cleaners must speak Romanian... said Premier Inn job ad
ONE of the country’s biggest hotel chains has been condemned for running an advert saying that those applying for a cleaning job had to speak Romanian.
The advert for staff at a Premier Inn in Hertfordshire was posted online for several days last week before being changed when a British cleaner complained.
Billy Pearson, who spotted it on the jobs website indeed.co.uk, said: ‘I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
‘We all know what this means – it means the job is only open to Romanian people. All they’ve done is skirt around it. What I can’t understand is how they’ve been allowed to do it.
‘I’ve been a professional cleaner for five years but it looks like I can’t apply for the job because I’m English. I’ve never seen anything like this.’
He added: ‘I’ve worked in pubs and restaurants where the majority of people I’ve worked with have been Romanian or Hungarian. It’s made no difference to me whatsoever. They should be allowed to do their job, just like an English person.
‘But I’ve never met an English person who speaks Romanian. You would have to be Romanian to even apply for this job. It’s bloody stupid.’
The advert, for a public area cleaner at the Hemel Hempstead Central Premier Inn, is likely to have been in breach of the Equality Act 2010.
It offered £7.50 to £7.75 an hour for a ‘passionate and hardworking’ applicant with at least one year’s ‘deliver service’. experience world- Under class ‘required who customer could language’, it stated ‘Romanian’.
Romanian is the 21st mostspoken language in the UK, according to the 2011 census. It was listed as the primary language of 0.1 per cent of people.
Premier Inn has now amended the advert to list the required languages as Romanian, Polish, Russian or English. The company refused yesterday to say why it needed a Romanian speaker had been or authorised whether the by advert the hotel branch or head office. A spokesman said: ‘As an equal opportunities employer we don’t place language restrictions on any of our roles and this job description, which is now corrected, was unfortunately posted in error. ‘We’re sorry for any confusion caused and look forward to welcoming all applications.’ An advert written entirely in Polish appeared on a government website in 2013. Details appeared on the Directgov website, as well as Jobcentre Plus and the job site CV Library. The only information in English was an on-screen heading that gave the category as ‘labourer’ and the location of the work as London’s Docklands. CV Library later explained that the employer was a Polish man who did not speak English and needed someone who spoke his language for ‘ health and safety reasons’.
‘I can’t apply – I’m English’