The owners of a Welsh pub in Brooklyn, who incurred the ire of the city’s Human Rights Commission through a help-wanted ad last year, have agreed to pay $2,500 and attend antidiscrimination training rather than going before a judge and risking a higher fine. Jennifer and Michael Colbert don’t concede they were discriminating when they posted an ad for a bartender at the Longbow Pub and Pantry that said, “Being British definitely works in your favor.” They said they’d have hired anybody with the right qualifications. The commission said they nonetheless violated a city code prohibiting employers from specifying national origin in job postings. They eventually filled the position when a “football mad” Irish woman walked in off the street. But along the way they got coverage at Gothamist, New York Times, BBC, The Guardian, and elsewhere. So maybe the ad wasn’t pointless after all.
