Italian woman 'rejected from Bristol cafe job because she isn't English by owner who's also from Italy'
An Italian woman living in the UK claims she was denied a job as a barista at a Bristol cafe because she is not English.
The woman, Beatrice, says the owner of Caffe Oro - who is also from Italy - replied to her CV writing: "No sorry just English person."
Beatrice, who speaks fluent English, was left furious and has now shared screen grabs of the alleged email while accusing the city centre cafe of discrimination.
The 24-year-old, who did not want to give her surname, ridiculed the response, telling Bristol Live: "You can see that she doesn't speak English well herself."
But owner Romina Dilauro claims that she has never heard of the woman, didn't send any emails to her and wasn't looking for staff.
She said the email read: "No sorry just English person."
Beatrice said she wrote back: "Do you know you cannot answer 'no sorry just English person' to somebody who is applying for a job?
"This is DISCRIMINATION. My English is perfect and I accept if you don't want to have me in your team because of the experience, but I do not tolerate an answer like that.
"Good luck finding someone who wants to work for you."
In a fragmented response, an email allegedly from the cafe owner said: "I'm looking for staff with good levels in English. Anyway I am looking for experienced barista.
"I am looking for good English talking not the person."
Beatrice replied: "You just told me 'I am looking for somebody with good English'. My question is: how do you know how is my level of English if you did not even speak with me?
"Maybe it would be better [if] you improve your English first, before you ask for an 'English person'.
"I feel sorry for who you are going to hire."
Beatrice told Bristol Live: "Even if my level is not good enough then fair enough, but she didn't speak to me or call me or anything.
"If she wants a person who speaks perfect English then fine, but at least call me. It's not really fair.
"I wrote her a long reply saying she couldn't respond like that. I would have preferred that she didn't respond at all."
Beatrice has since found work for a building management company in the city.
She added: "It's not because I didn't get the job, I have a better one now, it's discrimination.
"You can see that she doesn't speak English well herself."
Mrs Dilauro told that she doesn't discriminate against job applicants and all of her staff are from abroad.
She said: “I don’t know that girl. All my staff is multi-ethnic. I’ve got Portuguese, I've got Spanish, I've got Cuban, I've got Italian.
"We don’t discriminate against anyone."
Mrs Dilauro said she hasn't had any language problems with her workers.
