Purpose:
Brown Group is committed to the principle of equal opportunity in employment. The company’s policy is that it is unlawful to discriminate directly or indirectly in recruitment or employment because of any of the nine “protected characteristics” in the Equality Act 2010. These are: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation.
Scope:
The policy covers all T Brown Group employees and applicants for employment. The term “employee” refers to an individual who has entered into, or works under a contract of employment with the Company.
The Equality Act 2010:
The Equality Act 2010 makes it unlawful for staff to discriminate directly or indirectly, or harass customers or clients because of the protected characteristics of age, disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation in the provision of goods and services.
T Brown recognizes the following definitions under the Equality Act:
As stipulated under the Equality Act 2010 this refers to where an individual is directly discriminated against or harassed for association with another individual who has a protected characteristic (although this does not cover harassment because of marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity).
As stipulated under the Equality Act 2010, this refers to an individual who is directly discriminated against or harassed based on a perception that he or she has a particular protected characteristic when he or she does not, in fact, have that protected characteristic (although this does not cover harassment because of marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity).
T Brown Group is committed to take positive action to eliminate all forms of discrimination to provide genuine equality of opportunity. Our policy and practice will be continually and regularly monitored by the Directors and senior managers to ensure its effectiveness.
Employment Practices:
The company will actively promote equal opportunity throughout the application of employment policies which will ensure that individuals are recruited, selected and promoted and receive treatment which is fair, equitable and consistent with their relevant aptitudes, experience, potential, skills and abilities. No applicant or employee will be placed at a disadvantage by requirements or conditions which are not necessary to the performance of the job, or which constitute indirect unfair discrimination.
All contractual service employment conditions will be reviewed to ensure they do not discriminate against any particular group and do provide for the varying needs of the entire work force.
Recruitment, Selection & Promotion:
T Brown Group will use fair equal opportunities practices and will monitor them to provide a positive environment within which employees can use and develop their abilities to the full benefit of the organisation & themselves.
The benefits we are looking to achieve are in recruiting staff from a wider net so that all sectors of the community have an opportunity to apply for vacancies and this we trust will improve our chances of attracting the best candidates first time. We hope to retain staff by enhancing morale and prospects, which can lead to a lower level of absenteeism and staff turnover.
The benefits for the business will come from a more positive image as an equal opportunities employer and this will promote business growth. The company uses open recruitment methods to assist in our implementation via local and national press advertisements, local colleges and job centres.
Training:
The company has publicised its policy by placing it on the staff notice boards advising of the policy during interview and to staff upon placement. We also use the equal opportunities statement in our advertising and other marketing material.
The company will provide suitable and relevant equal opportunity training to staff. The company will provide positive action to promote training for those who require it to enable them to enter areas of employment where they are under-represented.
Harassment, Victimisation & Discrimination:
The company will not condone any harassment, victimisation & discrimination of any employee by another employee. Disciplinary procedures will be applied to deal with any complaints of harassment, victimisation & discrimination.
T Brown also recognizes the following definitions under the Equality Act:
Third-party harassment occurs where an employee is harassed and the harassment is related to a protected characteristic (although this does not cover harassment because of marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity), by third parties such as clients or customers.
In line with the Equality Act 2010, victimisation occurs when an employee is subjected to a detriment, such as being denied a training opportunity or a promotion because he or she made or supported a complaint or raised a grievance under the Equality Act 2010, or because he or she is suspected of doing so, or being about to do so.
Grievance and Disciplinary Procedures:
Existing company procedures will be kept under review to ensure they are appropriate and cover all aspects of the Equal Opportunities Policy.
If any job applicants or employees consider that they have been discriminated against on the grounds of race or sex, they may make a complaint to the company and to an Industrial Tribunal to assess the issues raised and make a ruling.
Organisational Arrangement:
The Managing Director is responsible for implementing and monitoring the operational effectiveness of the policy. It is the duty of each manager and individual employee to actively promote equal opportunity within their own sphere of responsibility.
Monitoring:
The company is committed to an efficient and confidential monitoring system to ensure effective implementation of all the company’s procedures and its Equal Opportunities Policy.
The policy will be reviewed on a company and a specific project or area basis and part of the review will be to monitor the job applicants and the various groups that they come from to see if we are attracting all the possible candidates from an area.
The company has records of the different ethnic groups currently employed and will use this information to identify under-representation and corrective action plans.
Complaint:
To safeguard individual rights under the policy, any prospective or current employee who wishes to complain about the application or non-application of the policy may:
Overview:
Every possible step will be taken to ensure that individuals are treated equally and fairly and that decisions on recruitment, selection, training, promotion and career management are based solely on objective and job related criteria.
Senior managers fully support this policy statement. All employees are responsible for playing their part in achieving its objectives.
PRINT NAME: Emily Gardiner, HR Director
DATE: 1 MAY 2024