A Muslim airport employee has accused airline Cathay Pacific of racism after he was refused a job interview – only to be offered one when he applied two days later using a fake white British-sounding name, the Daily Mail reported Sunday.
According to the British newspaper, Algerian-born Salim Zakhrouf applied to Cathay Pacific for a job as a passenger services officer at Heathrow Airport.
Zakhrouf, 38, who has lived in Britain since 1991 and is a UK citizen, was told by email he had not been selected for interview.
However, 48 hours later he applied again as 'Ian Woodhouse' with an identical CV and home address, and was invited for an interview by the same personnel officer who had first refused him.
Zakhrouf, who has 17 years’ customer-service experience and works as a Heathrow flight handling agent, refused to attend, the report said, and instead called his union, Unite, which plans to bring a case accusing Cathay Pacific of racial discrimination to an employment tribunal.
Cathay Pacific's UK Head of Marketing Roberto Abbondio apologized for the incident and blamed an 'administrative error' as staff tried to process 709 applications. He said Cathay was reviewing its recruitment process after a case he described as '"unfortunate and disappointing".
The Mail said Cathay Pacific’s UK Personnel Manager Alison Loftin also then emailed Zakhrouf to apologize and to arrange a meeting with her.
Zakhrouf, who is married with a 19-month-old daughter, told The Mail, 'It’s very strange I only received a proper response when you got in touch.
"After the way I was treated I have no desire to work for Cathay. The way they handled my application was racist and unfair. I have applied seven times for jobs at Cathay in the past three years and I have been rejected every time," he told The Mail.
"This has been a very unpleasant experience and will make me very wary of applying for jobs in future.'"