A UAE-based company has been heavily criticised since Wednesday over a job advertisement circulated on social media. The advertisement seeks safety officers for GBMT Steel Services, which is based in the UAE. The advertisement specified “Hindu candidates only can apply”.
Not surprisingly, the clause provoked a furore on social media. Mejeb-al-Shrika, a Kuwait-based activist and legal expert, shared a screenshot of the advertisement. Al-Shrika, who has previously criticised rightwing Hindu groups, tweeted on Wednesday “This is an advice to the Muslim Arab employers in the Middle East. Kindly look into the procedure seriously before you hire someone from India. Muslim candidates are malevolently being sidelined through a vicious conspiracy to plant an Islamophobic Sanghi instead.”
Other netizens also started sharing the screenshot and demanding action against GBMT.
This is fake recruitment post circulating over the social media and it's not posted by GBMT. We don't know who has posted this advertisement. We already raised the complaint to the Dubai police. We request not to pass the fake statements.
— GBMT Steel Services (@gbmtfasteners) April 13, 2022
Requesting to delete the fake news post https://t.co/lpIBNwzC6F pic.twitter.com/5WTOxDnBfj
GBMT was forced to take note of the controversy. It joined Twitter in July 2014, but had only one tweet prior to Wednesday. However, the controversy forced it to respond to multiple users. The company said the advertisement was “fake” and not posted by it. GBMT said it had raised a complaint with the Dubai Police. GBMT shared a screenshot of the Dubai Police taking note of the incident as a cyber crime.
The company also released a detailed statement, stating it was “aware of some fraudulent discriminatory job offers and recruitment scams”. The GBMT statement said the aim of the fraud is to “obtain personal information or money and defame GBMT”.
The company declared “Under no circumstances would GBMT offer any employment opportunities via WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram.” It also specified that genuine emails of the company would have domain name ending with @gbmt.ae. GBMT stressed again it “will never issue discriminatory recruitment offers to the public”.
Freelancers at fault?
The controversial clause may have been inserted by freelance recruiters. Companies in the Gulf often rely on freelancers and consultants, rather than mainstream recruitment or manpower companies, to hire people in India. THE WEEK reached out to C. Murugesh, whose name and number was listed on the controversial advertisement. Murugesh told THE WEEK he was a freelance recruiter who was informed of the job opening at GBMT via a contact in Mumbai, whom he said was also a freelancer.
The GBMT Twitter handle noted it did not know Murugesh.
