Job: online vacancy prioritizes white or good-looking – 06/12/2023 – Market

Mother with experience, preferably white, is wanted to take care of a six-month-old baby and a five-year-old child in Pindamonhangaba, in the interior of São Paulo. Tasks include bathing, preparing food, among other household chores.

This was the profile described in one of the 285 job advertisements analyzed in an article recently published in Cadernos Ebape.br, an online journal maintained by FGV Ebape (Brazilian School of Public and Business Administration of the Getulio Vargas Foundation). The research discusses the influences of racism and sexism on job market recruitment.

The searches were carried out in June last year on the LinkedIn social network and on the Catho, Vagas.com and Trovit websites, which bring together job opportunities.

The researchers say they started the research after the repercussions of the case of a caregiver from Minas Gerais who denounced, in 2019, an advertisement by Home Angels Centro-Sul. In the advertisement, the elderly caregiver company established some requirements: a minimum of three months of experience and candidates could not be black and fat.

At the time, Home Angels stated that the person responsible for the advertisement had no connection with the company and had not been authorized to publicize vacancies on their behalf. It also stated that it “vehemently repudiates any and all acts of racial injury or racism, in all its forms of manifestation”.

According to Luís Fernando Silva Andrade, assistant professor at Unesp (Paulista State University Júlio de Mesquita Filho) and one of the authors of the article, when searching for terms referring to black skin, the researchers found only waves of affirmative actions.

“But when we looked for white skin or a thin nose, light eyes, straight hair, which are characteristics normally associated with Caucasians, we did see advertisements that brought these elements as a predilection factor.”

In one of the offers analyzed, for example, an employer was looking for a middle-aged woman, preferably white, to take care of an 86-year-old elderly man. “The person being cared for has immutable limitations at this stage of his life (Alzheimer’s)”, justifies the advertisement.

Vacancies that explicitly indicated priority for white workers – such as the ads looking for a nanny, in Pindamonhangaba, and a caregiver, in Araxá – were all found on Trovit, an aggregator that brings together job opportunities posted on other sites, such as Infojobs. and Netvagas. Andrade claims that the situation is more common for vacancies of maids and caregivers.

However, most of the ads analyzed on the platforms stated that the candidate should have “good looks”, according to the research. For the authors, the term is used as a euphemism to indicate a predilection for white people.

“Good appearance is linked to characteristics of black people, which historically are seen as dirty. The hair, the braids, the dreads. These are all examples of characteristics that people associate with bodies that are not clean. There is also the issue of relate black bodies to hard work, sweat and odors”, says Andrade.

wanted by Sheet, LinkedIn says it supports initiatives that study how to make job advertisements more egalitarian and that surveys like the one published in the FGV journal are welcome. “LinkedIn’s global job posting policy prohibits discrimination in job postings based on protected characteristics, including age, gender, gender identity, religion, ethnicity, race, national origin, disability and sexual orientation.”

Vagas says it has removed the terms “good looks” and “personal hygiene” from advertisements on its site. The platform says that it does not condone any discriminatory practice or accept terms that may express such an attitude. Also according to Vagas, although companies are responsible for the content published in ads, the platform has a team responsible for checking the information.

Catho, on the other hand, states that the content of vacancies posted on its website is the full responsibility of the advertisers. The platform says it excludes ads that contain discriminatory and offensive terms when identified.

Trovit did not respond to the report’s attempted contact as of this writing.

A federal law from 1995 prohibits any discriminatory practice that limits access to or maintenance of an employment relationship.

According to labor lawyer Larissa Salgado, a partner at Silveiro Advogados, terms like “good looks” are subjective and should be avoided when selecting an employee because they can lead to the understanding that there is discrimination.

According to the expert, there are some activities in which the employer can ask the professional for something specific. “Whoever works in the kitchen has to have short fingernails and wear a cap, for example. But, when I go through the selection process, this will have to be very clear”, she says.