Equal Opportunities

Guide for Employers and Managers

It is illegal to discriminate on the grounds of sex, sexual orientation, race, religion or belief, disability and age. If an employee claims discrimination on any of these grounds to an Employment Tribunal and is successful, the compensation is uncapped. In recent years there have been huge compensation payouts amounting to many thousands of pounds. Therefore it is essential that employers understand how and where they could discriminate and what action they need to take to ensure equality and fairness in the workplace.

A claim for discrimination can be made even before employment begins or can be brought by an unsuccessful candidate. Therefore areas for consideration start at the recruitment stage:

Job applicants

Adverts should be worded in a fair, non discriminatory way. More recently (October 2006) Age Regulations came into force and now it is illegal to state a desirable age range in an advertisement for employment. Employers should also look closely at the job application form, person specification, job description, methods of short-listing and final selection to ensure equality and fairness throughout. At interview the employer should ensure that all reasonable steps have been taken to accommodate a disabled candidate, for instance providing wheelchair access, appropriate lighting, seating etc.

Employees

Terms and conditions of employment should be regularly reviewed and amended in accordance with changing legislation. Opportunities for training and promotion should be made available to all staff on a fair and equal basis.

Discipline, dismissal, grievance, redeployment and redundancy

The employer should ensure that policies do not discriminate against specified groups. Acts of discrimination, harassment or victimisation are disciplinary offences and should be dealt with under the Company Disciplinary Policy and Procedure.

Disabled employees

Employers should discuss what, if any, reasonable adjustments to the employee’s job or working conditions or environment might assist them in the performance of their duties. The employee should be encouraged to suggest any adjustments that they believe would be helpful to them. Careful consideration should be given to any proposals and where reasonable such adjustments should be made. Employees are not legally obliged to inform employers of their disability.

Equal Pay

Male and female employees, whether full or part time must receive equal or broadly similar pay for similar work, duties and/or responsibilities. Part time pay and conditions should be calculated on a proportion of the full equivalent for the role.

Maternity/Paternity (see maternity and paternity sections for further information)

When an employee becomes pregnant an employer must

• allow paid time off for ante natal care
• assess any potential health and safety risks to the employee or baby and make reasonable steps to remove or reduce them wherever possible
• allow the employee to return to work after a period of maternity or paternity leave

Positive Action

The composition of the workplace should be monitored on a regular basis. Where under representation occurs then positive action may be considered to redress the imbalance.

Ex employees

The employer still has a legal duty to ensure that references are not discriminatory, even when the employee has left the company.

Temporary, contract, casual, agency and home workers

All have the same equal rights as permanent employees.

Self employed

Self employed have the right not to receive detrimental treatment particularly in relation to workplace facilities.

Types of Discrimination

Discrimination falls into four main types:

Direct - treating a person less favourably on the grounds of sex, marital status, civil partnership, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity leave, race, sexual orientation, religion, belief, disability or age.

Indirect - occurs when a provision, criterion or practice is applied equally to everyone, but where the application of the practice results in a disadvantage to people from a particular group and where an individual suffers some sort of detriment as a result. Unless the employer can prove objective justification to have such a provision, criterion or practice as being an essential business need.

Victimisation - occurs when a person is treated less favourably or suffers a detriment because they have brought proceedings under one of the anti-discrimination laws, given evidence in a tribunal, complained internally of discrimination or assisted someone else in their complaint.

Harassment - where unwanted conduct occurs which has the purpose or effect of violating a person’s dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for that person. Whether or not any behaviour constitutes harassment largely depends on the perception by the individual concerned, for instance what is considered to be harassment to one person, may not to another. Therefore it does not matter what the harasser(s), colleagues, managers or any other associated person thinks. Harassment may be one or a series of incidents over a period of time.

Liability for Discrimination

An employer is liable for acts of discrimination carried out by their employees during employment, company social events or external work related events whether or not the employer knew or approved of the act in question

• set out company policy on equal opportunities at every stage of employment

APS Forms

• provide monitoring forms covering sex, age, ethnic group and disability to improve business effectiveness and are useful if the need arises to deal with a complaint

It is essential that employers promote and ensure equality in the workplace for all their employees and visitors. Failure could result in the employee making a claim to a Tribunal, where successful compensation is uncapped and can be very expensive. Employees may also become disillusioned and leave an employer who does not encourage fairness and equality in the workplace

APS.....equality in the workplace!

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