Equality+in+the+Workplace

toc Equality, 'The state of being equal, especially in status, rights, or opportunities' //Oxford English Dictionary//

Introduction Equality in the workplace is about addressing balance in terms of the representation of people. It is a term used within human resources to ensure that fairness is employed within the recruitment process and during employment. ACAS, (2014) believe It makes good business sense to treat workers fairly and considerately. Organisations should ensure they have policies in place which are designed to prevent discrimination, both to stay within the law, and to attract the best employees. It is unlawful to discriminate against people at work because of :


 * Age
 * Disability
 * Gender reassignment
 * Marriage and civil partnership
 * Pregnancy and maternity
 * Race
 * Religion or belief
 * Sex
 * Sexual orientation.

In order to ensure that discrimination is eliminated and equality levels are met within UK companies. A legally required set of practises must be obeyed by all companies (ACAS, 2014).

What are people saying about workplace equality? media type="custom" key="25378400" height="15" align="center"

A short history of women's equality in the workplace MMU (2012) 1888 - The first equal pay resolution at Trades Union Congress is secured. Meanwhile 1,400 women go on strike, protesting the low wages and dangerous conditions they have been subject to in the Bryant & May matchstick factory (Davis, 2014).

1956 - In the UK, lawful reorganisation means that female teachers and civil servants should be receiving equal pay. (Greater London Authority, 2008)

1968 – Women working in Dagenham at the Ford factory decide to strike over equal pay. This almost led to the complete halt of production at the Ford factory. This protest directly influenced the introduction of the Equal Pay Act. MMU (2012)

1975 - The Sex Discrimination Act is pushed through by the women’s movement. The Employment Protection Act introduces protection to pregnant women, which makes the sacking of a woman because of pregnancy illegal. (Channel 4, 2014)

1976 - The Race Relations Act is introduced; this makes it illegal to take race into account when deciding on employment and education.

1985 - The Equal Pay (Amendment) Act allows women increasing the wage for women, and means that for work of equivalent value, they must be paid the same as men. (Greater London Authority, 2008)

Here is an example of how women's equality in the workplace has developed over time.

Follow the link to see the exact figures for figure. 1.

=More Women Than Ever Before Are Sitting On Top Company Boards=

According to Lord Davies, Britain's former trade minister the number of women who are sitting in decision-making roles has increased by12.5% since 2011, women now accounted for 20.7% of board members in the FTSE 100 firms. The number of women in this position is still far from being equal to men however in the space of 3 years the increase of 12.5% is progress and the target of 25% by 2015 although ambitions given the progress over 3 years would require 50 women to be appointed in the FTSE 100 to become achieved (BBC, 2014).

This issue of the representation of women at top level decision making jobs is not just restricted to the FTSE 100 but even cabinet. "With just five women out of 33 in the cabinet, and women only making up 20% of government ministers, David Cameron and Nick Clegg have shut women's voices out of their own top table." Gloria De Piero ( Shadow minister for women and equalities) (BBC, 2014). .

Organisations Promoting Equality


 * Equality and Diversity Forum **

The Equality and Diversity Forum is a network of organisations combating equality and human rights within the UK. The website focuses on bringing together information regarding equality and human rights (EDF, 2014).


 * Equality Human Ri ghts **

Equality Human Rights focus on promoting and monitoring human rights. They aim to look after, implement and encourage equality across the primary "protected" grounds - age, disability, gender, race, religion and belief, pregnancy and maternity, marriage and civil partnership, sexual orientation and gender reassignment (Equality Human Right, 2014).




 * Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) **

ACAS aim to use employment relations in order to improve lives for workers as well as improving organisations. They supply the latest information, offer independent advice, training, as well as working with both the employee and employer. Acas not only aim to solve issues within employment, they also try to improve performance (ACAS, 2014).




 * The Equality Trust **

The Equality Trust aims to improve the lives of workers by reducing the level of income inequality within the U K. They state that in terms of developed countries, UK income inequality is one of the highest (The Equality Trust, 2014).



(Unite, 2014)
 * Unite**
 * Unite’s primary aim is to achieve equality for all.
 * The members of the union reflect the diversity within communities.
 * One of Unite’s primary objectives is to achieve Equality at work and in society.
 * Unite believe that whilst promoting equality for all, society should challenge discrimination, harassment and bullying at all times.
 * Unite represents its members and negotiates with employers regarding equality at work.


 * Investors in diversity **


 * The National Centre for Diversity provides Equality and Diversity solutions, working with the public, private and voluntary sectors.
 * The National Centre for Diversity is one of the leading firms in the Equality and Diversity field, they offer growth guidance for organisations.
 * The Investors in Diversity model works with three main ‘Stages’ (IID, 2014).

Legislation There is vast legislation to ensure that minimum standards are met, these are set out through the discrimination acts outlined below:


 * Equality Act (2010)**

The 2010 equality act combines nine of the previous discrimination acts in to one Act. This way the law is simplified, by removing any potential overlaps, which makes it easier for people to understand and comply with. It also strengthens the laws regarding discrimination and inequality, to provide stronger defence against it.


 * The nine previous discrimination acts:**
 * Race Relations Act (1976) - Repealed by Equality Act 2010
 * Sex Discrimination Act (1975) - Repealed by Equality Act 2010
 * Disability Discrimination Act (1995) - Repealed by Equality Act 2010
 * Equal Pay Act (1970) - Repealed by Equality Act 201
 * Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations (2003) - Repealed by Equality Act 201
 * Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations (2003) - Repealed by Equality Act 201
 * Employment Equality (Age) Regulations (2006) - Repealed by Equality Act 201
 * Equality Act, Part 2 (2006) - Repealed by Equality Act 2010
 * Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations (2007) - Repealed by Equality Act 2010

(Equality Human Rights, 2014)
 * Elements that may be changed within future Equality Acts.**
 * An Obligation to make adjustments to leasehold and shared premises’ within Scotland
 * Materials relating to supplementary assistance among schools
 * Diversity coverage from political parties
 * A ban on age discrimination in public sectors and functions
 * Civil partnerships in religious buildings

Equality and its contemporary relevance to the business world
 * Equal Opportunity**
 * Equal opportunity as defined by the Oxford Dictionary (2010), states that society is split up with a wide range of different roles, varying in their levels of attractiveness. The benefit of equality of opportunity is to bring fairness to the selection process for popular roles within businesses, associations, universities, and everywhere else (Holland, 2014).
 * Recent regulations brought in by the Equality Act (2010) have caused the business world to rethink their employment and worker relations.
 * Holland (2014) states that an employer must not treat a job applicant, employee or former employee worse than any other because of a protected characteristic (this is called direct discrimination).
 * Equality law additionally allows an employer to treat a disabled person better, or more favourably, than a non-disabled person. This recognises the additional barriers to work that disabled people face. If an employer asks questions about health or disability which are not allowed by equality law, the Commission can take legal action (Holland, 2014).


 * How employment law and equality law interact**

Equality Human Rights (2014) tells us that Employment law sets out people’s rights to:
 * A minimum number of days of paid time off
 * Paid and unpaid maternity leave
 * Paid paternity leave
 * Paid and unpaid adoption leave
 * Unpaid parental leave
 * Unpaid family emergency leave in certain circumstances (for example, if a worker’s usual childcare or care for other family members who depend on them is not available at short notice)
 * Paid or unpaid time off for public duties and trade union responsibilities

Holland (2014) believes that everyone should be treated equally to create a generation where people of all backgrounds and experience are valued equally. Marson (2013) believes that every organisation should have an equal opportunities policy, to outline the steps they will implement in order to stick to equality legislation, as well as promoting workplace equality.

(Equality Human Rights, 2014)
 * Situations that are designed to be avoided by employment and equality laws:**
 * An external applicant acquiring a job because there was a lack of internal advertisement.
 * A male employee receiving a higher wage than a female colleague despite the fact that the job is the same.
 * An employer giving employees holidays from one religion but not another.
 * A physically disabled person not able to work for a company due to lack of (for example) wheelchair access to the building.
 * A particular gender/age receiving interviews, despite the fact that age/gender is not a factor concerning the ability to perform the role.
 * Overlooking an employee for a promotion because of a view that their gender will mean they will not gain the respect from people they manage.


 * Recent workforce participation changes**
 * Women’s participation rate has increased from 59% in 1980 to 67% by 2013.
 * Ethnic minority participation – According to the Office for National Statistics (2013) within the early 1980s 4.5% of employees were from ethnic minorities, this is now around 8%. In 1980 66% of workplaces had no workers from ethnic minorities, now this is nearly 50%.
 * Career Prospects- The Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (2012) have outlined that increased women’s participation rates mean employers must try to cater for the needs of families with both parents maintaining careers. This has been implemented by altering measures such as parental leave, time off for family emergencies, right to request flexible working arrangements. Other considerations such as, career break entitlements, crèches and job share schemes, may also be present (Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development, 2012).
 * Legal Implications – If equality in the workplace is not present then this can cause a firm high costs (through law suits) and low reputation (through loss of respect). It is advisable to have written procedures in areas such as sexual and racial harassment and that line managers are fully aware of the requirements under law (ACAS, 2014).
 * Costs – Age discrimination alone estimated by the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (2012) to cost £19-31 billion. This can lead to increased staff turnover and a poor reputation.

**Unconscious Bias**
A recent equality issue that has been brought to the surface is when people commit unethical behaviour without any knowledge of doing so. This is known as ‘unconscious bias’. Parboteeah and Cullen (2013: 128) define unconscious bias as when a well meaning person, ‘unwittingly allows unconscious thoughts and feelings’ to manipulate seemingly objective choices. According to Banaji et al (2003) there are four different types of unethical behaviour that managers can engage in:

This occurs when unconscious bias is relied on to judge others. D ue to implicit prejudice surrounding gender stereo types, a case between Price Waterhouse and Anne Hopkins resulted in Anne Hopkins suing Price Waterhouse’s company for $25 million. This occurs when individuals with similar characteristics to their own are favoured. The similar characteristics can vary from race, to attending the same school. An example of this would be whereby a job applicant was chosen due to fact they had the same name as the interviewer. This is when unethical behaviour is ignored by a person because it is beneficial to them. For example a retail manager may turn a blind eye to a worker who turns up late consistently because that person has been a high achiever at the company. This occurs when decision making is unconsciously affected due to the implications that the chosen decision may have on the decision maker. An example of this would be a stock broker recommending the holding of stocks with a customer in order to be compensated for the maintained relationship.
 * Implicit Prejudice
 * In-Group Favouritism
 * Motivated Blindness
 * Conflict of Interest

Banaji //et al.// (2003) believes that it is important for companies to take steps in order to reduce the likelihood of unconscious bias occurring. Parboteeah and Cullen (2013) considers the following steps: (Parboteeah and Cullen, 2013)
 * 1) To collect data, which can help to determine whether employees are engaging in unconscious bias.
 * 2) Companies can train their employees to be empathetic when decisions are made, as it is important to realise how minorities or other disadvantaged groups may be affected by the decision. Banaji et al (2003) believes that it is important for businesses to realise how a decision may have differed if the decision maker belonged to a different group.
 * 3) Systems should be implemented to ensure that unethical behaviour is not ignored for the sake of performance objectives.
 * 4) Companies should expose the presence of conflicting interests in order to help employees understand work dilemmas, in order to sensitise them. This will make employees more conscious of such conflicting interests.

Therefore if a business is to provide complete equality and ethical behaviour then the issue of unconscious bias must be eliminated.

Eleanor Tabi Hallirt-Jorden explains how gender equality is getting smaller, and the remaining issues that need to be addressed (TED, 2012).

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===**Current Equality Programs - The National Centre for Diversity**=== ‘Diverse means different. We are all different, therefore diversity includes us all’ (IIDUK, 2014).

Relationships between staff can be affected by equality and diversity in the workplace, therefore an effectively implemented diversity programme can create a workplace that is fair, dignified and respectful. Diversity programmes may include (Connell, 2013):


 * The National Centre for Diversity have set up an award scheme called Investors in Diversity, with the aim of working with organisations to bring ‘equality and harmony’ to people within the UK (IIDUK, 2014). The National Centre for Diversity has partnerships with hundreds of organisations of all sizes.
 * The National Centre for Diversity believes that understanding stakeholder needs is essential to maximising the potential of an organisation (IIDUK, 2014).
 * The National Centre for Diversity claim that their experience, as the leader in the field means their advice and guidance can help an organisation grow (IIDUK, 2014).
 * Businesses are aiming to achieve the Investors in Diversity Award as it is recognised as a prestigious quality mark. It also develops organisations’ approaches to managing equality, diversity and inclusion effectively (IIDUK, 2014).
 * The National Centre for Diversity takes in to account that organisations have their own needs when they sign up to Investors in Diversity. Therefore there are three ‘Stages’ of Investors in Diversity to cater for the different needs (IIDUK, 2014).
 * The quality mark was only introduced in 2005 and so it is relatively new, alongside this, the introduction of the Equality Act (2010) has improved the equality benchmark for businesses. These two factors mean that organisations are looking to achieve all three Investors in Diversity stages, in order to achieve a competitive advantage (IIDUK, 2014).

The Three Stages


 * Stage 1 ** - Through stakeholder consultation, a snapshot of an organisation is provided to help realise how people relate, respond, and react to each other within the workplace.
 * Stage 2** - The aim of transforming practices within an organisation, through the creation of a better platform, for greater communication, discussion and engagement with the principle target of bettering equality.
 * Stage 3** - Supports the business in demonstrating excellence with the aim of supporting firms to become ambassadors in their field.

Bath Spa University Students Union is currently Stage 1, with Stage 2 Investors in Diversity beginning next year. Bath Spa Students Union has set out the aim of becoming the first Students Union in the country to achieve Stage 3 accreditation (Bath Spa Students Union, 2014).
 * Why are firms aiming to become investors in diversity?**[[image:ntinm3/BathSpaUniversity_Logo_CMYK.jpg width="250" height="250" align="right" caption="Bath Spa University, Investor's in Diversity"]]

Primary benefits to investors in diversity: (IIDUK, 2014)


 * Competitive advantage
 * Enhanced reputation.
 * Enhances PR from the prestige of the award.
 * Demonstrates commitment to a company's stakeholders.
 * Enables a firms to understand strengths and areas for development.


 * How a firm should implement workplace equality**


 * The primary reason that businesses want to be seen as promoters of workplace equality and diversity is because a negative reputation through lack of equality promotion will lead to a competitive disadvantage Mitchell (2003).
 * According to the Government Equalities Office (2013), all businesses must adopt their own strategies to reap the benefits from equality and diversity. They further believe that to be effective, equality and diversity must be integrated into the core business strategy, and not treated simply as an extra add-on.
 * Complying with equality legislation alone will not provide a strategic and competitive advantage, businesses must maximise their use of equality to achieve business benefits (Government Equalities office, 2013).

According to the Government Equalities Office (2013) firms can achieve external business benefits when they take greater consideration of the world and legislative environment around them. An example of this would be employing staff from different countries and cultures. This can help a business implement its products and services suitably and considerately to new markets. Due to the increasing diversity of consumers, firms may need to reflect this or risk losing out in important markets (Government Equalities Office, 2013). Studies appear to have found evidence that firms have reaped business benefits from equality & diversity, but not all firms in all contexts at all times.
 * External Business Benefits**

Cornelius (2002) believes that equality and diversity management is a vital source of competitive advantage in a modern economy, due to the attractiveness of the firm from an employee perspective. Internal business benefits arise from an organisation when its internal operations are improved. A diverse and equal workforce will also include varying perspectives. By utilising this range of perspectives it can improve creativity and problem-solving, which is likely to facilitate better decisions. Cornelius (2002) believes that in order to realise this potential, successful promotional strategies for equality are a necessity. Furthermore, equality management is essential to ensuring a positive workforce regardless of a person’s background.
 * Internal Business Benefits**

=LGB / Sexual Orientation Equality =

The public sector has traditionally promoted itself as being at the forefront of equality in employment policy when compared with the private sector. It paved the way for sexual orientation equalities and was the leading employer choice for lesbian, gay or bisexual people. Private and voluntary organisations are catching up with the public sector in the recognition of equality and diversity. Banks and management consultancies are viewed as being the most 'gay-friendly' employers. Some of the changes in these policies may have been brought about not as a result of natural development in keeping with the times but rather as a result of the introduction of the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulation in 2003 as a direct requirement of the European Employment Equality Directive (2000) (Colgan, F, & Wright, T, 2011).

Conclusion From the points raised throughout this wiki, it appears clear that equality in the workplace is a necessity, it has benefits to both the employer and the employee, internally within the workplace and externally for a company's brand image. The only concern for businesses is that once the equality gap has closed and all firms along with society have achieved equality in the workplace, then this will no longer offer a competitive advantage, as it will be standard practice. However, this is beneficial for society and so firms, should integrate equality within their workplace, for good practice, as well as achieving a short term competitive advantage. Ethically, everyone should be equal, it should be the standard practice, not just good companies that follow these equality laws. It should be 'the norm' and anything less is not acceptable.

For References (click the PDF below) Colgan, F, & Wright, T 2011, 'Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Equality in a Modernizing Public Sector 1997-2010: Opportunities and Threats', //Gender, Work & Organization//, 18, 5, pp. 548-570, Business Source Premier, EBSCO//host//, viewed 16 May 2014. BBC, 2014, ''More women than ever' on top UK company boards, says report' [] Accessed 16 May 2014.