30th December 2012, 12:07 AM
Kel Wrote:What would the alternative be at the moment? There's not much point saying they can't use that criteria if there's nothing else to use instead. Remember that the local authority is trying to meet a legal obligation to have a measurable quality standard for all tender applicants. Unless anything more likely exists, then the IFA requirement might just be the best they can do.
Fair enough - they want some measurable standard, but as IFA isn't an industry body with regulatory status a clever lawyer might successfully claim unlawful discrimination. They'd be safer with something akin to "IFA Membership (or demonstrable equivalent skills/experience)" to let non-IFA folk prove their suitability. There is a certain safety in the fact our business generates such low pay that few of the potential applicants for this post could seriously afford the legal fees needed to mount a challenge...