Judge says not discrimination to refuse to hire people from ‘hostile’ states like China and Russia if it may pose risk to British security
Refusing to give a job to Chinese and Russian people in companies that deal with issues of national security and require security clearance is not racist, an employment tribunal has ruled.
It is not discriminatory to stop people from “hostile” states taking up certain jobs in the defence sector because of the risk to British security, the judgment says.
The ruling relates to the case of a Chinese scientist who accused a British AI company with ties to the UK and US defence departments of racism after she was not given a job due to security concerns.
Tianlin Xu applied for a role at Binary AI Ltd but the founder of the software company, James Patrick-Evans, turned her down and employed a British man instead.
He emailed her: “Disappointingly I’ve come to the decision not to proceed with your application on the sole basis of your nationality.
“As a company, we work closely in sensitive areas with western governments and wish to continue to do so. We’re simply not big enough of a company to ensure the separation and security controls needed to hire someone of your nationality at this stage.”
Judge Richard Baty, sitting in London, described the email as clumsy and said: “In complete isolation, it looks like an admission of direct race discrimination on the basis of nationality.”
But he said in fact Xu had been turned down as she would not...
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