Cleaners wanted: must scrub loos, empty bins and promote diversity… Applicants for public sector jobs are asked to demonstrate ‘commitment to equality and diversity’

Chefs, cleaners, builders and electricians applying for public sector vacancies are being asked to demonstrate a ‘commitment to equality and diversity’ and show their opposition to ‘discrimination and unjust behaviour’.

From admin staff and academics to site maintenance and tech support, candidates for jobs at British universities are also increasingly required to display their ‘woke’ credentials.

An advertisement for a cleaner at Northampton Guildhall states that the duties include not only cleaning toilets and emptying waste bins, but also ‘a commitment to equality and diversity’.

As well as preparing food and maintaining hygiene, a new chef at Kent University must ‘deliver and promote equality, diversity and inclusivity’.

Durham University is seeking a full-time maintenance builder for work including plastering, masonry and footpath repairs. Once again, another requirement is ‘a commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion’.

Durham University is seeking a full-time maintenance builder for work including plastering, masonry and footpath repairs. Once again, another requirement is ‘a commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion’

In Staffordshire, even school cleaners are part of the trend. Along with ‘mopping, buffing and wiping’, applicants to a post advertised by Shaw Education Trust must ‘ensure that all work is completed with a commitment to equality and anti-discriminatory practice’.

None of the advertisements explains how the candidate is expected to display this commitment or what evidence they should provide to show they meet the stipulation.

Meanwhile, critics have slammed the rise of the ‘woke’ job application. Alan Smithers, a professor at Buckingham University, said: ‘A moral madness is overtaking the country. The essential requirement of staff of all kinds is that they be good at, and committed to, their jobs.’

According to Professor Dennis Hayes, the director of Academics For Academic Freedom: ‘The only value that should be required of an academic is a commitment to the pursuit of knowledge.’

There are also fears that the trend for ‘virtue-signalling’ in job advertisements could be contributing to the sharp rise of ‘economically inactive’ over-50s.

Chris McGovern, the chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, believes that such ‘flag waving for diversity’ deters older people from applying.

‘Virtue-signalling does not fool mature adults who have experience of life,’ he said. ‘For them, ‘wokeism’ is ‘fakeism.’ ‘