Racism denied in fake CV job case

Qamar Malik now works in London and returns to Cardiff at weekends

A construction company manager has denied being racist when he rejected an Pakistan-born engineer for a vacancy.

Qamar Mohammed Malik was not invited to an interview by the Amec Group, but was then granted one when he applied under a fake Welsh name a few days later.

Mike Hartwell, a catchment manager for the construction arm at the time, said racial origins did not matter to him.

Judgement was reserved at the Cardiff employment tribunal, where the company denied race discrimination.

Mr Malik, 49, from Cyncoed, Cardiff, claimed that when he first telephoned Amec in Treforest near Pontypridd, the company indicated it could find him work given his experience.

Mr Malik said he was then told the company had already seen his e-mailed CV, and it had no suitable vacancies.

Mr Malik then made up a similar CV, but with inferior qualifications, under the name of Rhyddir Aled Lloyd-Hilbert.

The tribunal heard that "Mr Lloyd-Hilbert" was e-mailed a job description for a quality inspector and a maximum salary of £33,000 was indicated.

My point is that racial origin doesn't matter to me. We recruit the best person for the job Mike Hartwell, Amec

Mr Malik, who now works in the London area, told the tribunal he had e-mailed bogus CVs to "two or three" other companies but they had been consistent in their rejection of him and "Mr Lloyd-Hilbert."

Mr Hartwell told the tribunal he decided not to invite Mr Malik for interview because he was not appropriate for its site engineer vacancies.

"We did not think the claimant was suitable for the site engineer role as much of his background was local authority-based and in an office-based capacity," said Mr Hartwell.

"The site manager is a hands-on role as opposed to an office-based role."

'Best value'

Mr Hartwell said the fictitious CV was also rejected for the site engineer role for the same reasons.

He added that "Mr Lloyd-Hilbert" was contacted for interview with regard to the quality inspector vacancy and not Mr Malik because the former indicated he was about to move to Wales whereas the latter had a Reading address.

"They (other catchment managers) were trying to get the best value for our client to keep costs at a minimum which was why they didn't consider Mr Malik for the quality inspector post," said Mr Hartwell.

"The difference with 'Mr Lloyd-Hilbert' was that he indicated on his CV that he was looking to move to Wales."

The company has fallen below the usual high standards of human resource management for not asking Qamar Malik for interview earlier this year Andrew Goodhead, Amec

The quality inspector vacancy was filled earlier this year by a candidate on an annual salary of £28,000.

Under cross-examination by Mr Malik, who is representing himself, Mr Hartwell rejected any notion of racism in the selection process when asked about how many ethnic minorities people the company had employed.

Mr Malik claimed out of 143 staff at the Treforest premises, only one was from an ethnic minority background.

The claimant said: "It tells me that we are blind to you - you are closed and you never see us."

Mr Hartwell replied: "No, not at all. My point is that racial origin doesn't matter to me. We recruit the best person for the job."

He added: "You also have to consider the number of ethnic minorities who apply for the job."

Andrew Goodhead, human resources manger for the company, which has since been bought by Morgan Est, told the tribunal that an administrative error meant Mr Malik was not invited for interview for the quality inspector vacancy earlier this year.

This was despite being asked if he wanted one when he informed Amec of the bogus CV.

"The company has fallen below the usual high standards of human resource management for not asking Qamar Malik for interview earlier this year when the company sought to fill the quality inspector post," he said.

Mr Goodhead said a heavy workload during the takeover by Morgan Est and maternity leave for a colleague may have contributed to the oversight.

He said across the company's design, project and service division, 8% of staff were from an ethnic minority background and, of those, 3% were Asian.