Disabled Members Condemn 'Personality Testing'

RMT's Disabled Members' Conference, meeting in Plymouth on 27-28 April 2019, passed the following resolution, which had been submitted by Finsbury Park branch:

 

This conference notes that:

  1. many employers use various forms of personality testing for applicants for jobs and promotions
  2. these may be called 'psychometric tests', 'situational judgement tests' or something else
  3. employers use these tests as they are multiple-choice and can be marked by computers, so are cheap to use
  4. in Brookes vs Government Legal Services, the Tribunal (and subsequent Appeals Tribunal) found that one such test discriminated against an autistic applicant and recommended that the employer review its use

This conference believes that:

  1. these tests are subjective and designed to select applicants on social conformity rather than on aptitude at the job
  2. these tests are discriminatory against autistic, otherwise neurodivergent and other disabled applicants
  3. the aspiration to create a socially-homogeneous workforce is oppressive

This conference asks the union to:

  1. table to all companies which use these tests a demand that they stop doing so
  2. support members in complaining against the discrimination inherent in these tests
  3. raise this issue with our Parliamentary group.