Anti-sibling policy - legal?

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shesells

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Are anti-sibling policies legal when it comes to job applications? Can a sibling be denied an interview on that basis?
 
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Any multinational I've worked with has always had such a policy.

Picture the situations, you have a team of 5 others plus your sister & you have to:
- decide who goes on training courses & who doesn't
- evaluate & rank your team for bonuses, promotions & raises.
- move office space & decide who gets the nice window desk
- and so on.
 
I've never heard of such a policy before. Sounds odd and potentially discriminatory but I can't find anything authoritative to back that up!
tiger said:
Any multinational I've worked with has always had such a policy.

Picture the situations, you have a team of 5 others plus your sister & you have to:
- decide who goes on training courses & who doesn't
- evaluate & rank your team for bonuses, promotions & raises.
- move office space & decide who gets the nice window desk
- and so on.
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I fail to see why having siblings in the same workforce would necessarily present problems in those contexts...?
 
Two reasons which seem reasonably obvious:

1. A sibling is in a position to exert pressure on his\her manager through avenues not open to other employees.

2. If a sibling is getting (what is perceived to be) favourable treatment from a manager, it can cause considerably more resentment among staff than would be the case if a person was getting apparently favourable treatment for, so to speak, no apparent reason. It's not logical, but it happens.
 
Just because it's obvious does not make it legal though? That job would be worth an extra 10k+ to me and I didn't even get the chance to put my case because of my connection.
 
Ah well, with your confident attitude I'm sure you'll soon get a job elsewhere for '10k extra'. No point in losing too much sleep about what might have been if it's not an option.
 
They have made a decision, so this thread is irrelevant. Best case you'll ever get is they agree to interview you and find/make up (as required) another reason to not hire you. Unless you're after compensation...
 
Family relationships is not one of the 9 grounds it is illegal to disciminate on, so I think they are within their rights to have such a policy.
 
I agree with Sarah.

The anti-discrimination has 9 grounds on which you cannot discriminate against someone.

Family relationships isn't one of them. Competence isn't one of them either. You can discriminate on these grounds - it's perfectly sensible and it's perfectly legal

Brendan
 
yup, same here. You can't have a personal relationship with someone which may cause a conflict of interests either.

Not nice but realistically, it's sensible.
 
I thought immediately he was being discriminated on the grounds of 'family status'.
 
ClubMan said:
That is one of the 9 grounds alright but as far as I can see www.equality.ie is not that clear on what precisely it means!
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It's defined in the legislation. It boils down to not discriminating against someone because they have children or are pregnant or a carer. Nothing to do with siblings.

Equal Status Act 2000 said:
‘‘family status’’ means being pregnant or having responsibility -

(a) as a parent or as a person in loco parentis in relation to a person who has not attained the age of 18 years, or

(b) as a parent or the resident primary carer in relation to a person of or over that age with a disability which is of such a nature as to give rise to the need for care or support on a continuing, regular or frequent basis,​

and, for the purposes of paragraph (b), a primary carer is a resident primary carer in relation to a person with a disability if the primary carer resides with the person with the disability;
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Surprised to see how common this seems to be - I worked for a large multinational and there were loads of siblings, married couples, cousins etc. Actually they seemed to almost positively discriminate towards relatives.
 
fintans said:
Ah well, with your confident attitude I'm sure you'll soon get a job elsewhere for '10k extra'. No point in losing too much sleep about what might have been if it's not an option.
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The "confidence" comes from very positive reports from the office manager who got my cv, only for her later to come back with the news of this policy. As for the money element, did it ever occur to you that I might not be particularly well paid at the moment so such a pay rise would make a major difference?

Thanks to those who responded with the appropriate links etc. It's disappointing but as rightly pointed out, it's all academic at this stage. Frustrating though, it's been ages since I've seen a job that ticked all the boxes on wish list.
 
it does seem unfair - i happen to work with a family member who although doesn't work for me, i have indirect management over.

No need for the sarcasm of repliees re the 10k extra - if you don't know your worth no-one else will.

best of luck
 
I know a Credit Union that has the same rules. My sister works there and they take in a number of students over the summer months and none of her children can apply. The same rule applies to siblings.
 
I think the rule, or a variation of it, could very usefully be applied with great merit in some of our public sector bodies. The HSE (on a local or maybe a workplace-specific basis, obviously ) RTE and the ESB are three employers which immediately spring to mind.

RTE in particular suffers, in my view, from a perception that advancement within the organisation is much too dependent on internal politics. I have no good fix on whether the perception is accurate (though I rather suspect it is) and I can't help feeling that a policy which - at least to some extent - forces new blood into the organisation can't be a bad thing.
 
MOB said:
I can't help feeling that a policy which - at least to some extent - forces new blood into the organisation can't be a bad thing.
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I'd imagine that it's just as likely that the incoming brother/sister of existing staff members are just as likely to be 'new blood' with new ideas and approaches as unrelated persons. I come from a family of 6 siblings, all with dramatically different careers and outlooks on life.

It does sound discriminatory to me, and I wonder where it stops. Do you stop husbands/wives of existing staff joining? What about non-married partners? What about same-sex partners?

Many people would have closer relationships with some existing work colleagues than with their siblings, so do you stop promotions/transfers of good friends?
 
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