A woman from Brussels of African heritage has been awarded €21,648 in damages after being discriminated against on the basis of her skin colour and age during a job application. The victim saw an internal email from an accounting firm in Grimbergen in which she was described as ‘not too bad, but black and old’.
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€21,648 in compensation for woman discriminated against during job application
Colin Clapson
Published:
In February 2022 and via Actiris, the Brussels employment agency, the 36-year-old woman applied for a job as an accountant's assistant at a company in Grimbergen (Flemish Brabant). She sent off her CV and a cover letter and received an email asking her to send additional information.
However, attached to that email was a previous email from the same day containing internal communication between the manager of the accounting firm in Grimbergen and her tax advisor, with the words: ‘pas trop mauvais, mais noire et âgée’, (not too bad, but black and old). The woman was ultimately not hired.
‘Other people with diverse backgrounds hired in the past’
The jobseeker immediately contacted the anti-discrimination service of Actiris.Brussels, which lodged a complaint with the accountants. The company denied that there had been any discrimination. It claimed that the woman had never responded to the additional questions and that there was no question of racism, as other candidates with diverse roots had been hired in the past.
The Dutch-speaking labour court in Brussels rejected both arguments and ruled that the Brussels woman had been the victim of unjustified ‘cumulative direct discrimination’ on the basis of her skin colour in the context of an application procedure.
The victim was awarded double compensation of twice the gross salary for a period of six months, amounting to a total of 21,648 euros. The company did not appeal the ruling.