Discrimination in hiring: the government will launch a testing campaign, announces Bergé

A call for tenders will be launched in June to entrust this campaign to a research laboratory that will create 3.000 CVs for a first wave of testing in the fall of 2025, the ministry indicated.

The four discrimination criteria retained for this first wave are first name, last name, address and gender.

The CVs will be sent in response to existing job offers and will not be unsolicited applications, which "takes longer but is much more powerful in demonstrating the level of discrimination," particularly across sectors and company sizes, Aurore Bergé explained to AFP.

"The idea behind this is obviously that we can, if necessary, change the law, particularly on the issue of sanctions against companies," she continued, referring to the creation of "comparable mechanisms" to the index on professional equality between women and men.

Aurore Bergé placed her initiative in the context of proposals to combat the "entryism" of the Muslim Brotherhood presented this week.

"I think that it is in our interest, the interest of the Republic, to be relentless with all attempts at infiltration and Islamist infiltration that may exist, but also to be relentless with regard to discrimination," explained Ms. Bergé.

"If you don't address both at the same time, the risk is that you'll create a very favorable breeding ground for this political ideology to take root," she said.

The testing on discrimination in hiring will be repeated annually and could be extended to other criteria, such as age, she further indicated.

Ms. Bergé added that there will also be "undoubtedly a second stage on the issue of access to housing," another "major issue" in terms of discrimination.

"Do couples with the same income levels, based on their first and last names, have more or less access to housing, or do they surprisingly end up with applications that are never considered?" the minister asks.