Equality & Diversity Policy
The Company is an equal opportunities employer and committed to a policy of treating all employees and job applicants equally and ensuring the workplace is free from unlawful and unfair discrimination on the grounds of colour, race, nationality, national origin, ethnic origin, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, disability or age. All employment decisions will be made without taking into account irrelevant discriminatory factors.
The Legislation
It is unlawful to directly discriminate in recruitment or employment or the provision of services on the grounds of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage & civil partnership, pregnancy & maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.
Job Specifications will be limited to those requirements that are necessary for the effective performance of the job. Candidates for employment or promotion will be assessed objectively against the requirements for the job, taking account of any reasonable adjustments that may be required for candidates with a disability.
The Company will consider any possible indirectly discriminatory effects of its standard working practices. When considering requests for variations to these standard working practices, they will only be refused if good reasons exist. The Company will comply with the obligations in relation to requests for contract variations and will also make reasonable adjustments to standard working practices to overcome barriers caused by disability.
The Company will not discriminate in the selection of employees for recruitment or promotion, but the Company may use appropriate lawful methods, including lawful positive action, to address the under-representation of any group which the Company identifies as being underrepresented in a particular type of job.
Dignity at Work
The Company has a separate dignity at work policy concerning issues of bullying and harassment on any ground and how complaints of this type will be dealt with.
Customers, Suppliers, Visitors & Others
The Company will not discriminate unlawfully against customers, suppliers, visitors or others using or seeking to use goods, facilities or services provided by the Company. Employees should report any bullying or harassment by customers, suppliers, visitors or others to their manager who will take appropriate action.
Training
The Company will provide information to all employees regarding Equal Opportunities and provide guidance and training to Managers and others likely to be involved in recruitment or other decision making where equal opportunities issues are likely to arise.
Your Responsibilities
Every employee is required to assist the Company to meet its commitment to provide equal opportunities in employment and avoid unlawful discrimination. Employees can be held personally liable as well as, or instead of, the Company for any act of unlawful discrimination and in serious instances, may be guilty of a criminal offence.
Acts of discrimination, harassment, bullying or victimisation against employees, or customers are disciplinary offences and will be dealt with under the Company’s disciplinary procedure.Discrimination, harassment, bullying or victimisation may constitute gross misconduct and could lead to dismissal without notice.
Grievances
If you consider that you may have been unlawfully discriminated against, you may use the Company’s Grievance Procedure to make a complaint.
The Company will take any complaint seriously and will seek to resolve any grievance which it upholds. You will not be penalised for raising a grievance, even if your grievance is not upheld, unless your complaint is both untrue and made in bad faith.
Monitoring
This policy will be monitored periodically to judge its effectiveness and will be updated in accordance with changes to employment law.
Information provided by job applicants and employees for monitoring purposes will be used for these purposes only and dealt with in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulations 2018.
