French Government Summons 7 Major Companies Over Hiring Discrimination Concerns

The French government has invited the seven companies suspected since February of hiring discrimination to a training session to strengthen their skills in this area. These are Air France, Accor Hôtel, Renault, Altran, Arkéma, Rexel and Sopra Steria, reports franceinfo, Friday.

According to the same source, these companies had been identified following a testing campaign launched at the government’s initiative following the "Name and Shame" principle, which consists of presenting two CVs with almost identical content, with the difference being the candidate’s origin and an address in a working-class neighborhood, for a single job offer.

For the moment, four of the seven companies summoned have confirmed their participation in the training, which will start on July 2 in the offices of the Secretariat of State for Equality between Women and Men. The recruitment firm Mozaïk RH, specialized in promoting diversity, is in charge of organizing this 4-hour training. This seems quite insufficient for Saïd Hammouche, the founder of this firm, the aim being to observe in practice the positive changes in the recruitment practices of these companies. "It will be a matter of seeing how we recruit, how we properly evaluate profiles and how we succeed in their integration into the company," he specifies.

For Anne Gallot, from the A Compétence Egale association, which brings together recruiters committed to fighting hiring discrimination, the initiative is salutary, but "not enough". From a source close to Marlène Schiappa, the Secretary of State for Equality between Women and Men, this training sounds like a "reminder to order" to these companies.