A Jobcentre advert demanding Polish-speaking factory staff is being investigated after complaints by furious unemployed workers.

Pet food manufacturers Supreme Nutrition said recruits must be able understand instructions given by a supervisor from Poland speaking his native language.

But the ad for the post, paying the minimum wage of £5.80 an hour, angered job-seekers who claim they are being unfairly discriminated against.

The Department of Work and Pensions are now investigating the notice in Sudbury, Suffolk, which they believe may breach equality laws.

According to official statistics there are currently an estimated 1,500 people in the area looking for work in Sudbury, Suffolk, where the notice was placed.

One 32-year-old man, struggling to find work after he was made redundant from his job in the building trade, said: ‘It doesn’t seem right or fair – there are plenty of local people who would be more than willing to fill those jobs.

‘But they don’t stand a chance of being taken on because the only people who speak Polish around here are the Poles who have moved here in recent years.’

A spokeswoman for the Government Equalities Office said: ‘Unless there is a genuine need for a worker to speak a particular language it is against the law to require that they should do so as a condition of employing them.’

A DWP spokesman said: ‘Jobcentres accept more than 10,000 vacancies a day and it we do not have the resources to check every one.
‘But all employers are required to declare that their vacancy meets all the legal requirements and we will be investigating this case.’
Daily Mail