EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES
by John Ball 02 Sep 2002
Organisations and businesses are made up of many individuals working together to achieve organisational success. These individuals bring different attitudes, perceptions and learning experiences to the workplace, as well as ethnic, gender and personality differences.
These can be a source for developing creativity within an organisation. However they can also be the cause of problems. Over the past 30 years or so employment has changed beyond all recognition. This change has led to a fundamental re-thinking of the way employees are managed. Managers have had to recognise the need (or in many countries the legal requirement) to develop and enforce company policies aimed at reducing and eliminating discrimination. In addition, the increasing globalisation of business has meant that managers must be aware of cultural and race issues.
Equal opportunities is a universally used and understood term which describes the idea that everyone in an organisation should have an equal chance to apply and be selected for posts, to be trained or promoted and to have employment terminated fairly. Employers can discriminate only on the basis of ability, experience or potential. All employment decisions are based solely on an individual’s ability to do a particular job. No consideration should be taken of a person’s sex, age, racial origin, disability or marital status.
In addition, many organisations have adopted a sex discrimination policy that requires gender equality in all areas of employment including the selection process, opportunities for training, promotion, benefit provision, facilities and dismissal. Such a policy deems it wrong to make any form of discrimination within employment matters because of marital status or sex and covers three main categories of sex discrimination: direct discrimination, indirect discrimination and victimisation.
Direct discrimination involves treating a person less favourably than others on sexual, racial or marital grounds. For example, a dismissal from employment upon marriage. One act of discrimination is sufficient and must be directed against an individual. Indirect discrimination describes a term or condition applicable to both sexes, but where one sex has a considerably lesser ability to comply with it than the other. For example, a condition that a candidate must be of a particular height. Finally, victimisation is discrimination against an individual who has brought proceedings or given evidence in another case involving discrimination or disciplinary matters.
A race relations policy adopts the same approach as the sex discrimination policy. However, this policy looks at racial grounds and racial groups, phrases which refer to
colour, race, nationality or other ethnic or national origins. The same three categories of direct and indirect discrimination and victimisation can be applied.
An equal pay policy requires that both women and men receive identical pay in respect of what is described as ‘like work’, ‘work that is rated as equivalent’ or ‘equal value’.
‘Like work’ defines work of a broadly similar role where differences are not of a practical nature. ‘Work equivalent’ is where work has been evaluated and graded to be equivalent to other work in relation to effort, skill and decision-making. Work of ‘equal value’ is that of a woman’s to that of a man’s in the same organisation.
As well as issues affecting gender and race discrimination issues, employers are paying more attention to the rights of the disabled in the workplace. Many organisations have therefore adopted a disability discrimination policy.
A disabled person is defined as someone who has a physical or mental impairment that has substantial and long-term (more than 12 months) adverse effect on his or her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. Severe disfigurement is included, as are progressive conditions such as HIV, even though the current effects may not be substantial.
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