Hardly a case of racism

Sir,
I refer to a letter sent to you a while back by a Dutch correspondent, regarding work in Cyprus.

He was complaining about so-called ‘racial’ preference with regard to employment/recruitment advertisements. Surely, on an island that has Greek as its language, it is understandable and in fact necessary that a good proportion of vacancies will specify Greek as a required prerequisite of applying candidates!

Common sense dictates that in an operational situation, fluent Greek, both oral and written, may be essential. Racism/fairness doesn’t apply here!

We are recently arrived residents on this wonderful Island and can understand his frustration if he’s been seeking employment on the island. We are both visitors here and have to abide by the local rules and ‘red tape’, no matter how quirky or unfair they may seem to be.

Discrimination exists everywhere, including in the UK and Holland, particularly with regard to employment. Many employers will not employ young women because of their potential to leave to have families, some will not employ smokers, some will not employ people over the age of 40.

On a Greek-speaking island you would expect most vacancies to require applicants to speak Greek!

Gerry Harrison,
Aradippou, Larnaca

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.