A Barcelona shopkeeper has been fined €7,501 (£6,600) for placing an advertisement for a shop assistant stating that the applicant should be “a woman over 40”.
Javier Marcos, who runs a small curtain-making business in the Fort Pienc area of the city, said he wanted to replace his only female employee, who is retiring, with someone with a similar profile.
“I have no intention of discriminating against anyone. In fact, I wanted to offer an opportunity to a group of people for whom it is difficult to find work,” he said, adding that the majority of his clients were women.
Marcos withdrew the ad from the website after he was warned by the labour inspectorate that he could be fined. However, the inspectors went ahead on the grounds that the ad discriminated on the grounds of both sex and age.
They said discriminating on grounds of sex was permitted only when the nature of the job demanded it, such as in a women’s changing room in a gym.
“I was hoping they’d be queuing up at the door but instead I’ve ended up with a fine, which is a lot of money for a small business,” Marcos said. The only consolation is that the fine is reduced to €4,500 if it’s paid within 30 days.
While accepting that he has to pay up, Marcos pointed out that the Catalan government is running a campaign encouraging more women to become firefighters. At present, only 2% of firefighters are women and the government has launched a recruitment video under the slogan FemEquip – a play on words meaning both “we’re making a team” and “women’s team”.
“What’s the difference between my advertisement and theirs?” Marcos asked.
No fines were imposed a few years ago when the Barcelona bar Entrepanes Díaz advertised for waiters over 50. “I was looking for waiters who are over 50 because I knew they’d be fantastic and because society has unjustly pushed them out of the job market,” the bar’s owner, Kim Díaz, said at the time.
