Yes.
I’m required to live within an hour’s drive of my workplace too.
Did they state you had to be within an hour of the site in the job description?
No reason it wouldn’t be legal. You can’t refuse an applicant because of their race, sexuality etc, the legally protected stuff, but there’s nothing preventing them from refusing you based on geographic location.
It appears you have not started employment with these folks, therefore they can go ahead and withdraw if they wish. It’s not discrimatory to require you to be within reasonable distance of their headquartered location or your main office site.
Why would you want to be on Belfast wage living in London anyway? The golden ticket is the other way around.
There are sometimes bits on job adverts stating you have to live in the area or state that you’re willing and able to relocate.
Different employment laws in England and NI, so it’s a no go with most companies.
I’ve asked if I could work remotely from NI for an English company – they won’t let me as the contract of employment is only written for English employment law. I don’t know all the differences, but off the top of my head it’s 2 years employment before you get full employment rights in England Vs 1 year in NI.
They don’t want to take the risk of offering the job, closing the application process and then the candidate being unable to actually get somewhere to stay and withdrawing before starting work meaning they have to go through the whole process again. Not already being within the area just means there’s more of a risk of the candidate never starting than if they were already there. It’s perfectly legal, and not entirely unreasonable. Especially with the rental market what it is in Belfast these days.
Not illegal at all. Your address isn’t a protected characteristic.
Though it’s ridiculous if they have the facilities to enable working from home to limit their pool of talent to 20 or 30 miles around the Belfast area.
Their loss!
I live on one side of Belfast, and the the time I do school runs and get to the other side it’s over an hour. So I couldn’t apply because of that?
10 comments
Yes.
I’m required to live within an hour’s drive of my workplace too.
Did they state you had to be within an hour of the site in the job description?
No reason it wouldn’t be legal. You can’t refuse an applicant because of their race, sexuality etc, the legally protected stuff, but there’s nothing preventing them from refusing you based on geographic location.
It appears you have not started employment with these folks, therefore they can go ahead and withdraw if they wish. It’s not discrimatory to require you to be within reasonable distance of their headquartered location or your main office site.
Why would you want to be on Belfast wage living in London anyway? The golden ticket is the other way around.
There are sometimes bits on job adverts stating you have to live in the area or state that you’re willing and able to relocate.
Different employment laws in England and NI, so it’s a no go with most companies.
I’ve asked if I could work remotely from NI for an English company – they won’t let me as the contract of employment is only written for English employment law. I don’t know all the differences, but off the top of my head it’s 2 years employment before you get full employment rights in England Vs 1 year in NI.
They don’t want to take the risk of offering the job, closing the application process and then the candidate being unable to actually get somewhere to stay and withdrawing before starting work meaning they have to go through the whole process again. Not already being within the area just means there’s more of a risk of the candidate never starting than if they were already there. It’s perfectly legal, and not entirely unreasonable. Especially with the rental market what it is in Belfast these days.
Not illegal at all. Your address isn’t a protected characteristic.
Though it’s ridiculous if they have the facilities to enable working from home to limit their pool of talent to 20 or 30 miles around the Belfast area.
Their loss!
I live on one side of Belfast, and the the time I do school runs and get to the other side it’s over an hour. So I couldn’t apply because of that?