The RAF strongly denied that it had acted in any way illegally with its recruitment practices. James Hippie, the armed forces minister, said any evidence of positive discrimination would be investigated and would not be tolerated. “We have asked all the Armed Forces to improve their diversity, but we will not accept courses that start anything but full, and we will not accept any lowering of standards and we will not accept any operational impact,” he said. . “But we are happy for the chief of the air staff and his team to look at what they could legally do in terms of affirmative action, provided the conditions that the secretary of state and I have set are met.” Use Chrome browser for more accessible video player 0:31 Defense Minister responds to leaked papers The informed sources claimed that recruitment officials were instructed to prioritize placing women and ethnic minorities on training courses in the year to March 31, 2021. One of the sources claimed this included bringing in dozens of women and minority ethnic candidates early and paying them salaries earlier than their white male counterparts. This was done “to artificially inflate the numbers” for that hiring year, the source said, adding: “This is clearly positive discrimination.” Positive discrimination – promoting someone based solely on a specific, protected characteristic – is illegal under equality law. This differs from affirmative action, which allows an employer to take certain steps to improve diversity in the workplace. Image: Defense Secretary James Heappey MP The RAF said it had hit targets set by the government in March Sky News revealed this week that the RAF’s head of recruitment had resigned in protest at what defense sources described as “impossible” diversity targets for this year. The sources said the RAF’s recruitment force of around 450 had been under pressure for much longer, however, particularly during the build-up to the year to March 2021. The Air Force, under Air Chief Sir Mike Wigston, was trying to meet targets set by the government to increase the flow of female recruits to 20% and the flow of ethnic minorities to 10%. On 24 March 2021, with much fanfare, the RAF declared that this had happened. “Royal Air Force Recruitment and Selection – in partnership with key stakeholders – is working extremely hard to make the RAF a more diverse organization that better reflects the society it serves,” it said in a statement. “Through targeted interventions, within an affirmative action legal framework, across the attraction, recruitment and selection space, a wide range of stakeholders, including BAME, have been engaged [black, Asian and minority ethnic] and gender networks, to identify barriers to BAME and women’s recruitment’. Image: Air Chief Sir Mike Wigston The levels reached were “excessive”, the source claims But the breakdown of the hiring numbers that support the claim of hitting the target has not been made public. The Ministry of Defence’s public, half-yearly diversity statistics for the year to 31 March 2021 reported – by contrast – that the female inflow rate for the year was 18.3%, instead of 20%. The RAF said the difference was because its data had excluded women from rejoining the service. Furthermore, the levels achieved were “inflated”, an informed source claimed. An internal email leaked by Sky News has revealed that the RAF has opted to scrap so-called selection or suitability interviews for all applicants between 1 December 2020 and 31 March 2021, under what a senior officer described as a “trial”. The interview is a way for the RAF’s recruiting arm to screen candidates and promote only those deemed most likely to succeed through the rest of the selection process. The rest of the process includes things like aptitude tests and medical and fitness tests. A second briefed source said the scrapping of the one-man interview meant a larger pool of female and ethnic minority candidates was created to load into training courses. “This was not welcomed by the entire recruiting force as it removed the ability to filter out those who were not suitable for training in this case,” the source said. “It was contested at all levels, but we were told to put it in and implement it.” Use Chrome browser for more accessible video player 3:05 RAF: Jobs stopped for white men “Their performance should not have been taken into account” The RAF, however, said the “pause” of these interviews occurred to determine whether the selection process could be accelerated to meet overall recruitment targets at a time when the country was facing significant disruption due to the COVID pandemic. He said this was not a move made specifically in relation to achieving that year’s ethnic minority women’s targets. However, a third informed source claimed: “The pressure and direction from senior leaders was that all women and ethnic minority applicants should be given priority consideration when processing their application. “Their performance was not to be considered, as long as they met the minimum standards they were prioritized for moving forward, essentially meaning white males were left behind in the process or offered dates for their next test that were after priority peers. “This was seen by the management team as affirmative action and not discriminatory on the basis that they are not denying non-prioritized applicants the ability to move through the system or denying them an employment opportunity based on their protected characteristics.” A separate paper offered evidence for a direction to prioritize female and ethnic minority recruits. One read: “Recruiting Force continues to prioritize female VA applicants [virtual aptitude] for CRM [customer relationship management].” Another document said the progress of ethnic minority candidates was being tracked in a similar way, adding: “Recruitment Force continues to prioritize BAME candidates from VA for CRM, while Rec Ops [recruitment operations] prioritizes loading it into the BRTC core training program]’. Use Chrome browser for more accessible video player 0:47 All RAF women march to Wembley Former RAF fighter pilot is considering legal action Additionally, Tim Davies, a former RAF fighter pilot, posted a leaked email on his YouTube channel that appeared to confirm that the service was at least willing to help women and ethnic minority applicants through the selection process more quickly. “AFKO [Armed Forces Careers Offices] they are going to remove the captive pilot, RPAS [drone operators]WSO [weapons system operators] and Int [intelligence] candidates from CBAT [aptitude test] events within the above dates unless BAME and female,” the email read. The dates were from 26 October 2020 to 23 November 2020. Mr Davies said he was considering taking legal action against the RAF under equality legislation. “This is positive discrimination against someone because of an immutable characteristic, which we know in this case is the color of their skin and their gender is white men. It is unacceptable what is happening right now within the service,” he told his interview with Sky News. . An RAF spokesman said however that the service was aware of the email at the time and “its senior leadership took immediate action to address this misdirection”. Read more: Defense Secretary orders review of military flight training as RAF leadership ‘tails’ over leaks UK’s ability to train fast jet pilots in crisis as threats from Russia and China grow. impossible’ diversity goals “From October 2020, the RAF provided direct training to Area Commanders and RAF staff in Armed Forces Careers Offices to ensure selection and recruitment activities complied with the law,” the spokesman said. Regarding the alleged front-loading of women and ethnic minority candidates on training courses before the end of March 2021 to meet diversity targets, the RAF said people brought in were told they would have to wait a longer period of time at the training college , RAF Halton, and was willing to do so. But defense sources said the move meant RAF recruiters began the next 12-month period with a shortfall of female and ethnic minority candidates in the pipeline and new diversity targets to meet, the sources said. Another paper supported this claim. Speaking about the female target, he said: “The pipeline remains depleted of female Cs (candidates) after front-loading these Cs in Q4 TY 20/21 [January-March 2021].” Responding to the general allegations, an RAF spokesman said all recruitment actions were legal. “Operational effectiveness is paramount and no one lowers standards to join the Royal Air Force. The RAF recruits for many occupations and, like the rest of the Armed Forces, is determined to be a force that reflects the society it serves to protect “, said the representative. “The Royal Air Force has a well-earned reputation for operational excellence built on the quality of all our people. We will always seek to recruit the best talent available to us.”
