A BLIND jobseeker was ordered to turn inside-out a homemade T-shirt emblazoned with a plea for work at a job session.
Andrew Slater wore the T-shirt, which said “I need a job, yes me”, to a meeting at Remploy in Friar Gate, Derby.
However, staff at the employment agency, which deals specifically with disabled jobseekers, said that the shirt was inappropriate and told him to change.
The 20-year-old, of Teesdale Road, Long Eaton, who is registered fully blind and suffers from a speech impediment, said that he was asked to change the shirt because there were managers from the agency’s head-office and an employer on site. He said: “The lady who I usually see there came to the door and said: ‘Andrew, can I please have a word?’
“She said: ‘Good idea with the T-shirt but please can you turn it inside-out?’
“Towards the end of the session, one of the ladies on the front desk said: ‘Excuse me, but your T-shirt is inside out.’ She asked if it was something offensive. My adviser said: ‘No but he knows the reason for it’.”
Andrew has been job hunting since September 2012 and he started wearing the T-shirt to attract potential employers while out and about.
His dad, Glenn, 40, said that he was shocked when he got a text from Andrew telling him what happened.
He said: “If I had been the employer who was around and saw that T-shirt, I would have thought: ‘That is someone who is using their initiative.’
“How can an organisation that is set up to promote employment for people with disabilities start pushing him around?
“I am just surprised that this is how they act.”
Glenn went back to the company to speak to the manager, who repeated what she had said to Andrew.
Glenn said: “The reason they gave about the T-shirt doesn’t seem very good at all.”
Since the incident, Andrew and Glenn have been invited back to the office for a face-to-face talk with Remploy staff.
Remploy spokesman Chris Randall said the staff did not mean to cause any distress but the agency stood by its policy. He said: “We are very sorry if Andrew was distressed or embarrassed by being asked to turn his T-shirt inside-out.
“The request was made with the best intentions. We ask all candidates to dress smartly as they may be asked to attend an interview at very short notice. We remain committed to doing everything we can to help Andrew with his job searching.”
Same Difference 
So asking him to turn a t-shirt inside out is classed as smart. More likely to put potential employers off!
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welcome to the real world were disabilitys are forgotten and not shown but then at the job club they don’t like it either cant win jeff3
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I think it’s a good way to get attention but probably not from serious employers.
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They had no damm right to tell you to change your t-shirt
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They obviously don’t like people who have more intleligence than the staff.
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Susan- that comment made me laugh more than the shirt!
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Seems to me the so called disability friendly agency actually set up a blind man for potential ridicule…a blind man with a piece of clothing inside out!!!! Big source for a joke by cruel minded people!! Let’s face it, there’s few jobs out their for anyone regardless of what folk wear, its a bag of crock!
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He should tell them to get on their bike that their services are no longer required they have used and abused his skills and dumped him like a used rag. Now because he is unemployed. Because of their incompetences they are treating him like he lives in a police state. If it was an issue about going for an interview they could have asked him to bring a shirt with him for interviews. If they are not bright enough to have considered this as an option then there is very little chance they will find him a job. But like all employment agencies they will use him to tick their boxes to receive taxpayers money. To live of the back of other people’s misfortune. Not many things lower than that.
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so right douglas .. what is going on in the UK …. we have lost the GB its just ALL B now ,, not great . unless u a muslim
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i did now it was a crime these days to advice 4 a job. so how else are we meant to get a job when u look on line and other ways and they do not help u in any way. so what to free speak we were give many years and this country is now start to become a military state with this government,is a joke so if he in the wrong in this pic 4 advertising 4 a job the government is wrong to 4 advertisment job then as it take too.
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Well done Andrew, next time, print both sides of the shirt 🙂
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You should see some of the clothes the staff in the job centre wear where i stay,so they have no right to tell what other people to wear.
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This guy it appears REALLY wants to work and employers are apparently oblivious to the effort he made. Employ those with initiative and the country would a better place than the do gooders and pc brigade who are running it and FAILING MISERABLY.
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Even the blind guy in this story could probably see through that ‘may get called to interview’ lie. A slogan t-shirt inside out is worse than a slogan t-shirt the right way out, for an interview. Having the shirt inside out either looks sloppy, or invites people to imagine the worst, or both. I would understand suggesting he didn’t wear the T-shirt again when attending Remploy and explaining why. But that’s not what happened, is it?
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And this in caring, sharing, Britain with a caring Government! This is the Government that closed Remploy! The firm that specifically employed people with a disability. Now they are ALL out of work. Why? So this awful bunch can share the `profits` with their friends and supporters.
I hope Andrew finds employment. He deserves to.
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