What steps can be taken to prevent discrimination in the workplace? What is discrimination? How can I avoid discrimination when hiring, or with my employees? Discrimination is a complicated topic. There are things, for example, that an employer may not ask during a job interview. Your Benefits will tell you everything you need to know about how to prevent discrimination in the workplace.
How to prevent discrimination: what is it?
You may be an employer. Then, it is important for you to know what discrimination is. Discrimination is when someone is treated worst because of a personal characteristic. These characteristics include:
- Age;
- Gender (this includes if someone changed their gender);
- Sex;
- Religion.
Then, discrimination can take various different forms. Indeed, it may materialize as an employer refusing to employ someone. Additionally, it can be an employer paying said person less, for no good reason. Finally, it could be that an employer targets a particular person for redundancy.
Note that if one of the above occurred to you or someone you know, it may or may not be discrimination. It’s important to remember that discrimination is not always done consciously. An employer might even set discriminatory rules in place, which put certain groups at a disadvantage, without meaning to do so.
Anti discrimination is treating a person or group to prevent potential discriminatory actions. Diversity and inclusion in the recruitment process is good as outlined in the equality act 2010. An employer that promotes diversity, instead of harassment and victimisation, should be encouraged.
Discrimination laws aim to prevent unlawful discrimination, and thus discrimination complaint. If this is not enough, human resources can help.
How is it possible to prevent discrimination when hiring?
You may be an employer. Then, it’s important for you to make sure that you do not discriminate when recruiting new workers. However, there are steps and things you can do to make sure this does not happen.
Sometimes, how you advertise for your job listing may cause indirect discrimination. Indeed, you may show your job listing on websites or media with a predominantly male audience. To avoid necessary discrimination, make sure that you diversify who you advertise your job lisings to.
First, in your job adverts, you cannot say outright or even imply that certain groups of people will be outright refused. For example, this includes saying that you cannot employ people who underwent gender reassignment, or people with a disability.
Furthermore, when talking about qualifications, make sure that you do not discriminate against people of a certain age alone. Indeed, only use qualification or experience requirements when such requirements are explicitly required for the job. Make sure that such requirements are not used to fulfill age preferences.
How is it possible to prevent discrimination during job interviews?
As an employer, there are certain things that you cannot ask during a job interview. Indeed, they are known as ‘protected characteristics‘. These include the characteristics listed earlier (such as sex, age, gender…).
| Protected characteristics in the UK in 2022 | |
|---|---|
| Characteristic | Is it a protected characteristic? (and thus illegal to discriminate against it) |
| Sexual orientation | Yes |
| Personal belief or religion | Yes |
| Sex | Yes |
| Race (which includes national, ethnic origin, nationality or colour) | Yes |
| Being pregnant, or on a benefit like maternity leave | Yes |
| Having a disability | Yes |
| Being in a civil partnership or marriage | Yes |
| Having undergone gender reassignment | Yes |
| Age | Yes |
| Education | No |
Furthermore, you may not ask if someone is married, in a civil partnership or single during a job interview. Moreover, asking whether someone has or wants to have children is both forbidden and inappropriate.
Additionally, asking about someone’s disability or health is also often forbidden and inappropriate. However, you may do so if one of the following is true:
- You are recruiting a disabled individual through ‘positive action’;
- The job that the person is applying for cannot have ‘reasonable adjustments’ be done to accommodate for disabilities or conditions;
- You need to inquire to see if someone requires assistance to undergo an interview or selection test.
Can I ask about age, union membership, criminal history…?
Job applicants are not required to tell you about their criminal history, if their convictions are already spent. Indeed, their convictions cannot be the reason for which you do not hire them. Furthermore, you must treat the person as if their conviction did not occur. Note that this is not the case for certain types of employments, such as schools.
Typically, you cannot ask for someone’s date of birth during recruitment, or even on an application document. The exception to this rule is if age is a requirement for the type of business that you conduct, such as sale of alcoholic beverages.
You are also prohibited from discriminating against someone based on their membership to a trade union. Indeed, you may not refuse employment to someone because they belong to a trade union. On the flip side, you also cannot coerce someone to join a trade union before you can hire them.
Can I hire someone with protected characteristics?
You may choose to hire someone with protected characteristics. Indeed, you may choose to do so if 2 people have the same qualification for a job. However, note that you should do this is you believe that people with said protected characteristics:
- Typically suffer from that characteristics, like if they are typically not hired because of said characteristic in your area of work;
- Are not sufficiently represented in the industry, or in the profession or sector that you work in.
Note that this does not mean that you should hire someone not qualified for a job, simply because they have a protected characteristic. Indeed, make sure that the person is qualified. However, if the person is qualified, then you may make such a decision on a case by case basis.
You can employ family members. However, you must make sure that you do not give them special treatment. This includes giving them differing working conditions wages or wage increases and promotions when compared to other workers.
Additionally, you must make sure that when it comes to your family members, all National Insurance contributions and tax are in order.
How is it possible to prevent discrimination in the workplace?
As an employer, you should never engage in discrimination against your employees. Indeed, there are several ways in which discrimination in the workplace can manifest itself. Indeed, this can be, for example, giving different pay (or different benefits) to men and women contributing equal value.
Note that you may not discriminate against self-employed individuals, nor against people currently working through a contract.
Another example is firing someone because of their membership to a union, or because they called out discrimination in the workplace. Additionally, examples of discrimination in the workplace include the following:
- Not accepting a demand for flexible working by a new parent, for no fair reason;
- Not making ‘reasonable adjustments’ to accommodate for a worker with a disability;
- Targeting someone with redundancy because they have a ‘protected characteristic’;
- Putting in place policies that only benefit workers in a certain situation, or with certain characteristics, while discriminating against other individuals;
- Discussing specifically to older workers about retirement plans. Talks about careers and development cannot specifically target older individuals, and must include other workers;
What if an employee is undergoing gender reassignment?
An employee in the workplace may be undergoing gender reassignment. In this case, they are protected from any kind of discrimination done to them. Indeed, they may have to take time off work. This would be likely because of treatment that needs to be done. Then, they cannot be disadvantaged.
Furthermore, the employee in question needs to be able to use the facilities in their workplace that fit with their gender identity. Furthermore, the worker will receive their new birth certificate and a Gender Reassignment Certificate. Then, records need to be changed appropriately.
What if an employee was discriminated against in the workplace?
An employee might have been discriminated against at work. In this case, they have a recourse. If this is the case for you, you have two options: raise a grievance or proceed to an employment tribunal.
Why is it important to prevent discrimination in the workplace?
When we talk about avoiding discrimination, we do not mean that people should be paranoid about who they are talking to, and only caring about an individual’s characteristics. Discrimination is a complicated subject, and is often misunderstood.
Actively taking steps to prevent discrimination has nothing to do with being “politically correct”. Instead, it is about making sure that people are treated equally in a work environment. This is not only good for the employees, but for the business as well.
A lot of topics, like being ‘transgender’, are still vastly misunderstood in our society. Because of this, as an employer, it is important that you make sure that your employees feel comfortable in their personal characteristics.
