I posted this on a facebook group and got an interesting range of replies, but since the group was generally quite left wing there may have been a bias to the debate and I wonder what TWCs reaction would be.
So, I'm gay (no news there) and have a close gay friend that I've known for 6 or 7 years. Both of us are white males, both of us varying degrees of right wing in UK political terms, though his views are more right than mine.
Recently, there was a viral incident about equality in his industry, but not involving his employer, that got me asking out of genuine curiosity how he'd respond in similar scenarios. His replies outright astounded me, and demonstrated extremely discriminatory views against pregnant women, people of different racial backgrounds (all kinds) and disabled people. The conversation was over fb messenger so I've got a complete chat record of his comments.
Some examples include -
disabled wheelchair users shouldn't be allowed on planes unless they can afford to pay the extra cost of carrying their wheelchairs and providing their assistance - airlines shouldn't have to cover that themselves
its easier to just ignore applications with foreign sounding names when doing recruitment as statistically they aren't likely to have the values we're looking for anyway and it saves time
Here's the catch - I know his boss. I don't work for the same employer though, or even in the same industry.
My friend is involved in recruitment, training, staff development and line management, so his views (if acted on in his job) likely mean he's already done things that breach UK employment law on discrimination.
Is it right to report a private conversation to his manager and provide chat logs if required?
On the one hand, it's a massive breach of trust. On the other, it's protecting the people he works with, both staff and customers - and the potential future employees he would prevent from ever getting a job...