Diversity & Equality

In January 2003, The Prime Minister asked for practical recommendations for organisations and government to work together to make a real difference to the issues of racial equality and diversity in the workplace.

Out of this request and through a series of working parties and steering committees grew the national standard for Diversity & Equality, incorporating not simply race but all of the following:-

	Age
	Disability
	National or ethnic origin
	Gender
	Race
	Religion
	Sexual orientation

This National Standard is called Committed2Equality and provides a good change model and is designed to advance an organisations activities and performance through an awareness and positive action in the fields of Diversity & Equality.

The Employment Law Group will guide organisations through the program from registration to audit and recommendations for accreditation, and will be available at every step to support and encourage. This is a win-win situation.

The Recruitment and Employment Federation has stated on their web site that by 2010 only 20% of the labour market will be white, non disabled men under the age of 45. Employers with foresight will already be building a diverse workforce in order to achieve their growth and objectives over the next few years.

Those who are ignoring the changing workforce ignore it at their peril. Then there are those organisations that "pretend" they understand by having a Diversity & Equality policy displayed on the wall, but don't really comprehend it's meaning, but it "looks good for visitors" or "we can tick the box when we have to complete a pre tender questionnaire." It is all very well having the paper trail, but unless there is a vision and a passion to live Diversity & Equality every day of your life in business, then there is a general possibility of litigation if one of your employees are found to be acting in a discriminatory manner.

What Does The Law Say? 

The law says quite a lot about discrimination in whatever forms that takes, and remember there is no limit to the award an Industrial tribunal can offer if a company is found guilty of discrimination!

Putting it quite simply, the law states that:-

You must not discriminate against people in the work place. This means that you must not treat people worse than others because of their gender, sexual orientation, nationality, colour, race or ethnic origin, religion/belief, disability or age. This applies equally to employers and employees. As an employer, you have a duty to ensure that discrimination is not taking place in your company and must ensure that employees receive adequate training and have awareness of issues around discrimination. Hence it is not good enough just to have a policy statement displayed on the wall.

The Employment Law Group offers an accreditation to Committed2Equality (c2e), and by achieving this accreditation, it will show that you as an employer have taken reasonable steps to improve the levels of diversity in your organisation and have the policies, procedures and practices in place to live it on a day to day basis.

For more information on the topic of Diversity & Equality in Local Government suppliers, read our article on Diversity & Equality in our articles section

c2e is THE National Standard for Diversity & Equality in the market place. To find out more about the accreditation, please log on to www.c2e.co.uk or contact The Employment Law Group for further discussions.