Equality and Diversity Policy Statement
The company is opposed to all forms of unlawful and unfair discrimination. We are an equal opportunity employer and are fully committed to a policy of treating all our employees and job applicants fairly and equally, regardless of:
- Marital or civil partnership status
- Age
- Disability
- Race (including colour, nationality, and ethnic or national origin)
- Sexual orientation
- Gender, including gender reassignment
- Religion or belief
- Pregnancy and maternity
These will collectively be referred to as the 'protected characteristics', for the purposes of this policy.
No employee or job applicant should be harassed, victimised or directly or indirectly discriminated against because they possess a protected characteristic.
- Part-time employees should not be treated less favourably than
a comparable full-time employee.
- Fixed-term employees should not be treated less favourably than a
comparable permanent employee.
- Employees and job applicants should be treated fairly and equally irrespective of their trade union status.
The Company will take all reasonable steps to provide a work environment in which all employees are treated with respect and dignity, and that is free of harassment based upon an employee's protected characteristic. We will not condone or tolerate any form of harassment, whether engaged in by employees or by outside third parties who do business with us.
Scope
This policy applies to all individuals who work and apply to work for us, including:
- Contract workers
- Agency workers
- Volunteers (including those on work experience)
Recruitment, advertising and selection
The Company are committed to applying our equal opportunities policy statement at all stages of our recruitment and selection process.
The selection process will be carried out consistently for all jobs at all levels and all applications will be processed in the same way.
Person specifications and job descriptions will be limited to those requirements that are necessary for the effective performance of the job.
The selection of new staff will be based on the role requirements and the individual's suitability and ability to do, or to train for, the job in question.
When assessing the suitability of a disabled job applicant, we will consider what reasonable adjustments can be made to work provisions, criteria and practices, or to work premises, in order to ensure that the disabled person is not placed at a substantial disadvantage in comparison with persons who are not disabled.
If it is necessary to assess whether personal circumstances will affect the performance of the role (for example, if the job involves unsociable hours or extensive travel), this will be discussed objectively, without detailed questions based on the protected characteristics or assumptions about the protected characteristics.
