Original Article (imgur)

Original Article (pdf-upload)

So this is apperantly going down in my town as of now. A bakery-chain is attempting to only hire girls for their positions in their bakeries. I have a sneaky feeling they might not be alone in trying to only hire girls, boys seem to be labeled as bad workers compared to girls. Working when you still are young teaches a lot of good habits, but for employers girls seem to be the one choice infront of boys. The manager for the region in this case even says it herself: "Boys are less tidy than girls." Is this true? Is it ok to not hire boys over girls? Does employers favor girls over boys?

Note that this is a translation from Norwegian to English. The text is thus unofficial. The original article is linked at the very top of this comment. I ask Scandinavians and others whom can read Norwegian to read the original article. As a translator I am only armed with obligatory school-English, so please remember to blame me and not the journalist for the language in the article. My own notes are in brackets.

Author of the article is Lars Fisketjøn from Stavanger Aftenblad.

Front page

Title: Boys told "no"

Ingress: When Mons Lunde (to the left) og Knut Wik Opheim applied for a summer job at Bakeriet [a bakery], the reply was: - We only hire girls here.

Breaking the law, replies equality ombudsman Sunniva Ørstavik.

Article Title: Rejected because they are boys

Ingress:

16-year olds Knut Wik Opgeim and Mons Lunde wanted to apply for a summer job at Bakeriet in Langgata [a street in Stavanger-Sandnes, Norway], but got told that the bakery-store only hire girls.

Body: Sandnes [town south of Stavanger] Knut Wik Opgeim and Mons Lunde wanted to land a summer job. Therefore they took a round to different stores inside Sandnes, and delivered their applications also containing their contact-information. When they got to Bakeriet at Langgata received a rejection they both reaction upon.

  • Some places took our applications, other places told us no based upon different reasons. We were prepared to receive a rejection also at Bakeriet, but when they said we could not get a job because we were boys, it took us by surprise, says Mons Lunde.

- Only employ girls

Following the visit at Bakeriet, both boys feel Unfairly treated.

  • We made no scene because of the rejection at the time, we just walked out of the store. Afterwards we became uncertain if it’s even legal to deny us a job only because we are boys. I think it is very wrong and have talked with both my parents and others whom all think that this is completely hopeless, says Knut Wik Opheim.

Fact-box: The Law

§3. Direct or indirect discrimination of of women and men is not permitted.

§4. Unless there is no obvious reason for it, must a job never be announced available only for one of the sexes. Announcement must also not give an impression that the employer prefers or expects one of the genders over the other for the position. At employment, promotion, termination or layoff, there must not be made a difference on women and men violating §3.

Source: lovdata [http://www.lovdata.no/info/lawdata.html]

Article after fact-box

Only women works at the bakery store in Langgata 26 in Sandnes center. Both the four full time employees and the weekend- and summer vicars are all female. It’s been like that for at least 12 years.

  • We only got girls here in the shop. We have been told by the management in Oslo that this is how it is supposed to be [Read that again]. There are some other stores in the [bakery-]chain that employ boys, så we are not being discriminating here, but us in Langgata only have girls. Not a single boy has been working here since I began working here back in 2001, says store-manager Adela Duranovic.

    • Why not?
    • You have to ask the regionmanager about that. It’s been awhile since we got the message about only hiring girls here in Langgata. I have nothing against boys, but young girls are probably more tidy in their job than young boys, says Duranovic.

  • Boys are more childish Region-manager Ingunn Remøy in Bakeriet Cafedrift AS means it is simpler to have young girls employed above young boys, but denies it is a conscious employment-policy.

    • Our experience is that 16 year old boys are more childish than 16 year old girls, but we have no ban on hiring boys, neither in that store or in the rest of our chain, says Remøy. The two summer job-appliers are not in agreement with the Bakeriet-manager.
    • There are no reasons that we would not do just as a good job as girls in that store, says Knut Wik Opheim. Remøy refers to that the bakery-chain has male employees, both in stores and in managing positions.
    • We do of course not have any policy against employing boys. That would have been discriminating says Remøy.

Next article bottom right.

Title: The ombud: - This they cannot do Sandnes

Ingress: The equality- and discriminationombud believes Bakeriet in Langgata has broken the equality law.

Body

Bakeriet in Sandnes center has no option to reject the boys, believes Sunniva Ørstavik, equality- and discriminationombud.

  • If this should be correct, it’s completely on the snout [totally ridiculous, or good old fashioned “fucked up”]. It is not allowed to employ people depending on their sex like girls in Norway. In which case one would need highly justifiable reasons to do so, and I see nothing by working in a bakery that suggests you can only hire girls, says Ørstavik.

Now she asks Knut Wik Opheim and Mons Lunde to be in touch.

  • I urge the boys to take contact with us, so that we can take a look at this case. First we must call upon Bakeriet to change their practices immediately, because this is only rubbish, says Ørstavik.

The journalist from Stavanger Aftenblad was Lars Fisketjøn, note that this has been translated and such you can be certain the original article is tenfold better in it’s original state.