How much English does the job actually need?
A great many people on this board did not grow up speaking English. This is the question they have before they apply, and no job board we have read answers it, because it sits close to something protected and saying nothing is easier.
Saying nothing does not help anybody. It leaves "excellent English essential" sitting on a picking job, and somebody reads that and does not apply for work they could do perfectly well.
Do I need perfect English?
No, and almost no job requires it. What a job requires is enough English TO DO THAT JOB SAFELY. For most warehouse and driving work that means understanding a safety instruction, reading a sign or a note, and being understood on a phone or at a gate. It does not mean an accent, a vocabulary or a grammar test.
Can an employer lawfully ask for a standard of English?
Yes, where it is genuinely needed for the work and the requirement is proportionate to it. A control room job that involves relaying emergency information is not the same as picking stock. The test is whether the standard asked for is actually needed, and an employer who cannot explain WHY has probably not thought about it.
What is NOT lawful?
"English as a first language". "British only". "No foreign nationals". "No accent". Those are about nationality and race rather than about the work, and they are unlawful under the Equality Act 2010 whatever the reason given. We refuse adverts that carry them.
Is right to work the same thing as language?
NO, and confusing the two is the commonest mistake in this area. Right to work is about immigration status and it is checked with documents. Language is about the job. An employer who treats one as evidence of the other has got it wrong, and sometimes it is worth saying so to them plainly.
There is one place the law does require fluency.
Public authorities have a statutory duty to make sure staff in CUSTOMER FACING roles speak fluent English, under Part 7 of the Immigration Act 2016. That is narrow: public sector, and only customer facing. It is not a rule for warehouses, sites or haulage yards, and an employer citing it outside the public sector is citing something that does not apply to them.
The driving test is English or Welsh only.
This one is worth knowing before you book anything. Since April 2014 the DVSA theory test cannot be taken with a foreign language voiceover and AN INTERPRETER IS NOT ALLOWED, on the theory test or the practical. That applies to every category. It is not a comment on anybody's ability; it is simply the rule, and people find out too late and lose the fee.
What if I think I was turned down because of my accent?
Being refused work because of your nationality or your race is unlawful, and an accent is usually treated as bound up with both. If you can do the job and were not given the chance to show it, that is worth raising. ACAS give free advice on 0300 123 1100 and time limits for discrimination claims are short: three months less one day.
What to do about it
Ask what the standard is for
A fair employer can answer in one sentence: to read a run sheet, to take a delivery instruction, to speak to a customer at the door. One who cannot answer is describing a preference rather than a requirement.
Say what you can do rather than what you cannot
"I read English well and I am slower on the phone" is more useful to an employer than an apology, and it is the answer of somebody who knows their own job.
Free courses exist and are worth the time
ESOL and functional skills English courses are free for most adults in England, and a level 1 or level 2 certificate is a thing you can put on a CV. It is also often the difference between a warehouse rate and a supervisor rate.
Do not translate your CV word for word
Job titles rarely map across countries. Write what you actually did and what you are licensed for, in short lines. Our free CV builder is written for that.
What we do about it on this board
We refuse adverts that ask for a nationality, a first language or an absence of an accent. Not discourage: refuse. The wording we accept and the wording we send back, published so an advertiser knows before they write it.
And an application here goes to the employer with your CV attached, without passing through anybody who might decide on your behalf that your English is not good enough. That decision belongs to the person doing the hiring, not to a middleman.
Where to get help, free
ACAS, 0300 123 1100. Free and impartial, on discrimination as well as on pay. Nothing you say goes to your employer.
Free courses. Training and courses, including the government course finder for free English and maths, and the free CV builder, which is written to be filled in by somebody writing in their second language.
Know a driver who should read this? Sending it costs nothing and it is how a small board grows.
These are ordinary links. No like button, no follow widget and no tracking pixel, because those load somebody else's script and start watching you before you press anything. Nothing leaves this page unless you choose to send it.