The current laws that have been legislated have been vital in increasing the awareness of the issue of discrimination and have played a vital role in combating the problems that occur in everyday employment. The laws that have been put in place to support and protect employees who feel that they are being discriminated against are explained below.
Equal Pay Act 1970
This Act makes it illegal to discriminate between men and women in relation to pay and other terms of employment. Employees are entitled to equal treatment with someone of the opposite sex who is employed carrying out jobs of a similar nature or work of equal value. Amended by the 1983 Equal Pay Regulations a woman or man can also seek equal pay to someone of the opposite sex if their work is of equal value in terms of the demands that it makes. In regards to this Act, more recently the National Minimum Wage was implemented In the UK in April 2000 to further help to decrease discrimination problems.
Sex Discrimination Act 1975
This Act makes it unlawful to discriminate against somebody because they are a man or woman either directly or indirectly. This Act also set up the Equal Opportunities Commission to support people who believe they have been discriminated against because of their sex or gender. Sexual harassment (unwanted or uninvited sexual conduct) is also unlawful under the Sex Discrimination Act and employers may be liable for discriminatory acts carried out by employees.
Race Relations Act 1976
This Act makes it illegal to discriminate against somebody because of their colour, race, nationality, citizenship or national/ethnic origin either directly or indirectly. This Act also set up the Commission for Racial Equality which oversees the implementation of the Race Relations Act and aids people with help and support who have been discriminated against on the grounds of racial issues.
Disability Discrimination Act 1995
This Act makes it unlawful for an employer to discriminate against any disabled person when recruiting or in employment. The Disability Discrimination Act encourages employers not to treat their disabled staff less favourably than their non-disabled employees for reasons relating to their disability, unless the treatment is justified.
Employment Equality Act 1998
This Act makes it illegal for employers to discriminate against an employee or a prospective employee, regarding access to employment on the grounds of gender, marital or family status, sexual orientation, age, race, religion or disability.
It must be noted however that despite these laws implemented which are vital to help avoid discrimination in the workplace, the law allows certain kind of discriminatory initiative as long as the preferential treatment is to a member of an under-represented group and has the objective of promoting equality. This is defined as positive discrimination.
WHAT IS THE ROLE OF TRADE UNIONS?
Trade Unions are a vital link in avoiding discrimination in the workplace and Salamon (1992) cited in Leat defines a trade union as ‘any organization, whose membership consists of employees, which seeks to organise and represent their interests both in the workplace and society and in particular, seeks to regulate their employment relationship through the direct process of collective bargaining with management.’ Following are the factors trade unions offer and I have tried to link these to discrimination as much as possible.
NEGOTIATION
Negotiation is where union representatives discuss with management issues which affect people working in an organisation such as discrimination. The union discovers views of their members and discusses these views with management. If there is a difference of opinion between management and union members’ negotiation is required to resolve any problems that have occurred. "Collective bargaining" is another term used for this process.
In many workplaces there is a formal agreement between the union and the company which states that the union has the right to negotiate with the employer. In these organisations unions are said to be recognised for "collective bargaining" purposes.
The main factors which are needed to be negotiated are issues such as pay, working hours, holidays and changes in working practices. People who work in organisations where unions are recognised are generally better paid and are less likely to be made redundant than people who work in organisations where unions are not recognised.
REPRESENTATION
Trade unions also represent their individual members when they have problems at work. If a member of staff feels they are being discriminated against they can ask the union representative to help sort out the issue with the manager or employer.
If the situation is not resolved then the matter may go to an industrial tribunal.
Industrial tribunals make sure that employment laws are correctly implemented within the company by employees and employers. Industrial tribunals are made up of people from outside the workplace who listen to the employer's and the employee's feelings on the problem and then make an un-biased and what they believe to be a fair judgement about the case. Employees involved in these issues can ask their union to represent them at industrial tribunals. Pay, unfair dismissal, redundancy and discrimination at work are the main issues that usually the issues involved with industrial tribunals.
Trade unions also offer their members legal representation. This is to aid and support staff for example who have been involved in work-related injuries or to assist people who have to take their employer to court to gain financial compensation.
INFORMATION AND ADVICE
Trade unions have great knowledge and a wide scope of information which is useful to employees. They aim to give advice on a wide range of issues such as holiday entitlement, information on maternity leave, training and the issue of discrimination.
MEMBER SERVICES
Trade unions also offer many services to their members. These include:-
Education and training
Most trade unions run many training courses for their members involved with issues such as discrimination, employment rights and health and safety. They also offer basic skills courses and others which lead to professional qualifications.
Legal assistance
Trade unions offer legal advice on employment issues as well as personal matters such as housing, wills and debt.
Financial discounts
Members of trade unions can obtain discounts on mortgages, insurance and loans from unions to aid them financially.
Welfare benefits
Some unions help their members with financial support if they become sick or unemployed.
WHAT CAN BUSINESSES DO TO HELP AVOID DISCRIMINATION PROBLEMS?
There are many schemes and techniques that businesses use to inform prospective and current employees about the issue of discrimination. The more that companies inform their staff then there will be greater awareness and knowledge of the subject within businesses. As discrimination is such a sensitive issue within employment, the greater promotion of the subject will sustain a positive impact for the future.
There are articles and publications relating to methods of avoiding discrimination problems at work. The Department for Work and Pensions () recommends that all employers take the following procedures:-
- Set up action plans relating to recruitment, promotion and training.
- Provide equal opportunities training for all members of staff, including management throughout organisations to make everyone aware.
- Monitor the present situation and progress in achieving equal opportunities objectives to discover successes and downfalls.
- Review recruitment, selection, promotion and training procedures regularly.
- Advertise objective and job-related criteria in job descriptions.
- Offer pre-employment training to prepare potential job applicants for selection tests and interviews and specific training to aid under-represented groups such as people with a disability.
- Encourage applications from under-represented groups.
- Develop links with local community groups, organisations and schools.
Businesses also need to educate themselves on the problems of discrimination and therefore should implement methods to avoid it. These include:-
- Knowing the protected classes for example colour and disability.
- Do not ask discriminatory questions at interviews or set discriminatory requirements in job advertisements.
- Use pre-employment testing such as using tests which evaluate set scores and avoid discrimination becoming an issue.
- Avoid discrimination after hiring therefore equal opportunity must be provided in relation to salary, transfers and promotions.
- Investigate any discrimination claims fairly by taking necessary steps and supporting all employees involved with the incident.
CONCLUSION
To conclude after researching the issue of discrimination in depth and answering the tasks I set myself it has been demonstrated that discrimination is a problem in the workplace as it can cause a negative impact within organisations and can potentially lead to problems such as courtroom disputes between employees and employers which would be devastating for many companies. However positive signs for the future are that the laws in legislation linked with the hard work carried out by trade unions will benefit employment and will reduce discrimination problems in the future. Also publications that give tips for employers and employees in relation to discrimination will make people more aware of the problems at present and will also help in decreasing the negative impact of discrimination.
REFERENCES
Banking Jobs UK, No Date. Work Issues – Discrimination in the workplace [online.] Available from [Accessed 22 November 2003]
Beck Law Offices, 2002. Job Discrimination: What Employers and Employees should know [online.] Available from [Accessed 22 November 2003]
British Telecom Business Advice, 2003. Equal Opportunities at Work [online.] Available from [Accessed 26 November 2003]
Department for Work and Pensions, 2003. Equality in the workplace [online.] Available from [22 November 2003]
Frenchie Web, 2001. Laws against discrimination [online.] Available from
Leat, M. (2001) Exploring Employee Relations Butterworth-Heinemann.
Mcilwee, T. Roberts, I.(1991) Human Resources Management ELM Publications.
Office of Equal Opportunity, 2003. Definition of Discrimination [online.] Available from [17 November 2003]
The TUC, 2003. What do unions do? [online.] Available from [25 November 2003]
INDIVIDUAL REFLECTIVE REPORT
The aim of this individual reflective report is to provide a short summary of how successful my written report has been in answering the topic question and evaluating the reasons why discrimination can be avoided in the workplace.
I believe that on the whole I have produced a well written report as I found important sub categories that were vital to be included being the issues of trade unions, discrimination and legislation. These are the main factors that have contributed to people being more aware of the problems of discrimination and have therefore reduced conflicts. Due to these points I feel the structure of my report is written suitably by introducing the reader to the issue of discrimination and then following on with the other implications involved with it.
In relation to research material found I decided to focus on recent articles therefore the Internet was the best option as I have easy access. I believe this has been successful as my report is an up to date article. However I feel that I could have looked more into the theories behind the topic question by researching more textbooks however a main factor why I did not do this was because of the time constraint I initially faced because of the demands of other modules.
Another problem I faced was that the report had to be a very concise one because of the word limit. If this was raised I would have been able to put more links in with discrimination however due to the word limit I still believe I chose the right things to include.
