The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) says agencies must stamp out the ageist and racist practices exposed by the BBC’s Panorama programme shown earlier this month.

The documentary, Must Have Own Teeth, was aired on 9 April. A reporter phoned agencies, pretending to be a potential client looking to recruit staff for a wine bar. He told the agencies he wanted people in their 20s. Of 25 agencies asked, 19 said that would not be a problem. They said they could not overtly discriminate, but made it clear that applications from older candidates  would simply not be considered.

In another case highlighted by the programme, 54-year-old Glen Penfold discovered he was “too old” when recruitment consultants trying to find work for him mistakenly copied him on an email about himself. It said Glen would struggle due to “the fact that he is 54”.
Until recently one of the most experienced managers in the telecoms industry, Penfold has applied for more than 150 jobs since September and has landed just one interview.
The ‘client’ also called five agencies, saying he only wanted white staff. Three of the agencies said this would not be a problem. This sort of discrimination is already illegal.

The programme did not name the agencies. A BBC spokesman said this was in line with the corporation’s guidelines.
A programme-maker has to seek the BBC’s permission to secretly record calls. It cannot do so and reveal the identity of the agency if there had been prima facie evidence of discrimination prior to the call.

Marcia Roberts, deputy chief executive, of the REC, said: “Unfortunately, recruitment agencies are given discriminatory instructions by clients on a daily basis. Although it will not be illegal to just put forward the CVs of candidates from a specific age group until 2 October, there are ethical issues to consider.
“Recruitment agencies should already be challenging discriminatory instructions from employers in an educative fashion and encourage them to consider candidates on their merits irrespective of age, sex or race.
“They should make the employer aware that they could be missing out on a large pool of talent by not considering all applicants. Furthermore, they need to make it clear to the employer that this sort of behaviour will be illegal as of 2 October so the sooner they stamp it out, the better.”