Equality & Diversity FAQs
Summary: Answers to the Frequently Asked Questions(FAQs) about Equality & Diversity at James Watt College.
What do we mean by equality and diversity?
Put simply equality applies to groups or individuals who are protected from discrimination by law. The law applies to people of different races and religions; people who have no religious affiliation; men and women; disabled people; lesbian, gay, bi-sexual people, people of different ages and transgendered people.
Diversity applies to other influences which impact on people’s lives and experiences. These influences can be due to education; family; socio - economic; income and geography.
Isn’t equality about treating everyone the same?
People often want to be sure that they are not treating people in a prejudicial way and describe behaviour as ‘we treat everyone the same’. Whilst this is a generally laudable aim it can present difficulties from an equality point of view.
There are times when we have to acknowledge difference and provide services or support to address that difference e.g. personal support for disabled learners to access college courses or providing space for private prayer to accommodate learners with particular religious needs.
What is the Equality Act 2010?
This is a new piece of legislation which has been approved by Parliament and will come into effect from October 2010. This new law brings together all of the previous equality legislation and sets out on what grounds people are protected. The grounds are: gender, marital/civil partnership status, sexuality, transgender, race, religion or belief, pregnancy or maternity, disability and age.
Who is protected?
Anyone who comes under any of the protected characteristics above is protected. In addition there are provisions under the Act to offer protection to:
- individuals who are perceived to be from one of the protected characteristics
- individuals who are associated with someone from one of the protected characteristics.
Are there any other changes which this Bill will bring in?
It contains a number of new measures and the key proposals are:
New public sector duties.
The existing public sector equality duties in relation to race, gender and disability will be consolidated and extended to cover all 9 “protected characteristics”. The existing equality duties (a mixture of action plans to promote equality and specific steps required of public authorities) will be extended to make public procurement a proactive tool to improve equality.
New socio-economic duty
Socio-economic disadvantage will be addressed through an important new duty for key public bodies.
Inequality and disadvantage are not only associated with issues such as gender, age, disability or ethnicity. Overarching and interwoven with these is the persistent inequality that results from someone’s background or where they were born. The new duty will require Government departments, local authorities and key health bodies to consider, in all the strategic decisions they make, how they will tackle the disadvantage some people face because of socio-economic disadvantage.
Access to education is a significant pathway to reducing socio-economic disadvantage and it is expected that educational sector partnership working with other key public sector organisations will become an important factor in meeting this new statutory duty.
Extension of age discrimination to the service sector
Since 2006 age discrimination has been outlawed in employment. The Equality Bill will extend this to the provision of services. Insurers and other businesses who distinguish the type and price of service provided based on age will be required to objectively justify such differentiation.
Action to promote equal pay freedom and obligations to disclose pay data
The government will be using the power of the public sector as an employer and purchaser of services to try and address the issue of inequity in pay and proposes two measures that will impact on private employers. The freedom for employees to discuss their pay and obligations on employers to reduce the gender pay gap.
Limited positive discrimination - if all things are equal
Although positive discrimination in favour of a protected characteristic will generally remain unlawful, the Equality Bill provides that where an employer has two candidates for a job who are equally capable of performing the role, it is permissible to prefer one candidate if they have a protected characteristic which is under-represented in the work force. In other words, if there is a male and a female candidate, both of whom are equally competent to perform the role, the employer may prefer the female if the majority of the workforce is male.
What is direct discrimination?
The term direct discrimination refers to when a person receives less favourable treatment on the basis of their personal characteristics or stereotyped assumptions e.g. women are better than men at looking after children.
What is indirect discrimination?
Indirect discrimination occurs when policies and practices, which appear neutral or fair because they are applied to everyone, actually disadvantage people and particular groups within society. For example, if a job advertisement states that applicants must be able to drive then this could put some disabled people at a disadvantage.
What is dual or combined discrimination?
In addition to the direct and indirect discrimination rules the new Act introduces the definition of ‘dual or combined discrimination’. This recognises that there are some instances of unfair treatment which are based on a combination of protected characteristics. For example gender and age where an older woman/man was treated differently in their application for a job.
Combined discrimination is often based on stereotypes, assumptions and prejudices so for example if an older woman was unsuccessful in her application for a job selling game consoles her case would need to focus on whether the combination of being older and female was the cause of her application being rejected.
Discrimination arising from disability
This is another new definition and is not the same as direct discrimination instead of focusing on the disability the focus is on ‘has the unfavourable treatment happened because of something arising from the disability’. For example the employer asks the employee to move to another office / campus which is appropriate in terms of the employment contract. However the move results in a longer journey to work requiring the person to leave home earlier and the return to home is later. This interferes with eating patterns required to control diabetes and so results in unfair treatment arising from the diabetes. The legal analysis would focus on whether it was justifiable to move the employee and what reasonable adjustments had been made.
Pregnancy and maternity discrimination
For the purposes of the Act it is unlawful direct pregnancy and maternity discrimination to treat a woman unfavourably because of her pregnancy, a related illness or because she has exercised her right to maternity leave during the protected period.
What is the protected period? This will be different for different women however it starts when a woman becomes pregnant and it lasts for as long as her statutory maternity entitlement. Unfavourable treatment of a woman because of her pregnancy or maternity outside the protected period would be sex discrimination.
What is meant by ‘institutional discrimination’?
The Stephen Lawrence enquiry, which had an emphasis on race, defined it as: ‘Institutional racism consists of the collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture or ethnic origin. It can be seen or detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racial stereotyping, which disadvantage minority ethnic people.’
In plain English institutional discrimination occurs when an organisation fails to make sure that it delivers its services in a way, which takes account of different needs within the community it serves and that it does not tackle ignorance and prejudice within the culture of the organisation.
Harassment related to a protected characteristic
The definition is that this occurs when a person engages in ‘unwanted conduct’ related to one or more of the protected characteristics and which has the purpose of violating the dignity of another person or creating for that person an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment. Unwanted does not mean that express objection must be made before the conduct is deemed to be unwanted.
What does related to mean? Conduct will be related to a protected characteristic if the person experiencing the harassment has the protected characteristic or if there is any connection with the protected characteristic. For example an employee who has a disabled child works with a colleague who persistently expresses the view that disabled people get too much favourable treatment; this could amount to harassment because it is related to a protected characteristic.
Harassment – ‘purpose and effect’
Even where there is no intention to create an ‘intimidating environment’ the conduct will amount to harassment if it has the effect of ‘creating such an environment’. In deciding whether the conduct has had this effect each of the following must be taken into account:
The perception of the complainant:
This test is subjective and depends on how the complainant regards the treatment.
The other circumstances of the case:
This could involve investigation involving witnesses and others.
Whether it is reasonable for the conduct to have that effect:
This is objective and linked to any investigation.
As with other breaches of the Act employers may avoid liability for harassment of a member of staff by other colleagues where they can demonstrate that they took all reasonable steps to prevent harassment.
What is positive action?
These are actions to encourage those people who are under-represented into particular areas of activity. For example, females or males into non-traditional training courses such as women into construction or men into childcare.
This new Act allows what has become known as ‘tie-break decision’. This would occur as part of a recruitment process where two different but equally strong candidates have applied for a position. In such cases the employer would be allowed to make the decision in preference of the candidate who comes from the under-represented or disadvantaged group.
Does the equality legislation cover overseas and non-European Union staff and students who are currently working/enrolled at the College?
The answer is yes. Once an overseas/international student is registered with James Watt College, or a staff member has been employed, they are covered under the equality legislation.
Why does the College ask employees for equality and diversity monitoring information?
Monitoring involves collecting personal information about employees, for example, their gender, ethnic origin, age or whether they consider themselves to be disabled. Monitoring of employees enables the College to check that discrimination is not is taking place and that the Equality and Diversity action plan and associated policies are being put into practice. An employee’s personal information is treated as strictly confidential.
What does BME stand for?
BME stands for Black and Minority Ethnicity, which includes members of the following British and international ethnic communities as identified under the Census. They include Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Indian, Indian other, Chinese, Asian other, Black African, Black Caribbean, other Black background, White and Asian mixed, White and African Caribbean mixed, other mixed background and other ethnic group.
If you’re white, can you take a court case under the Race Relations Act?
Yes. The Race Relations Act 1976 covers people of all races and provides for recourse to law should anyone be discriminated against on the grounds of their race or ethnicity.
What is meant by a disability ‘reasonable adjustment’?
A ‘reasonable adjustment’ is the term used for any support provided to a disabled employee, that helps them carry out their job. Examples of reasonable adjustments might be:
- A particular kind of computer software
- Improved physical access to the workplace
- Flexible working – to accommodate start and finish times
- Space provided for a guide dog
- British sign language support
Reasonable adjustments are also made available to College learners who require support to be able to fully participate in College courses, training, extra curricular activities as well as being able to access all parts of College campus life.
What is a Civil Partnership?
Lesbians, gay men and bisexual people have loving, stable relationships just like anyone else. The Civil Partnership Act makes it possible for same sex couples to enjoy the same rights and responsibilities as heterosexual married couples.
Same-sex couples can be in relationships for their whole lives, but until recently had no pension rights, often had their homes threatened by not being able to pass on tenancy rights to their partner or lost to inheritance tax and had no status as next of kin in the event of the death of one partner.
What is the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC)?
The Equality Act 2006 established the Equality and Human Rights Commission. The role of the EHRC is to promote equal opportunities for all and tackle barriers to social and economic participation. The Commission will cover all protected characteristics as well as human rights.
The role of the Commission is to protect, enforce and promote equality across all of the protected characteristics it does by:
- Enforcing the equality and human rights laws
- Influencing the development of law and government policy
- Promoting good practice
- Campaigns, events and communications
- Fostering better relations
- Developing understanding and evidence
The Commission covers Great Britain i.e. England, Scotland and Wales, but not Northern Ireland. We have offices in London, Manchester, Cardiff, Glasgow and Edinburgh, and a regional presence in 9 offices in England and 1 in North Wales.
Does the Human Rights Act affect me?
The Human Rights Act just doesn’t concern itself with global human rights abuses and problems internationally it is a set of guiding principles which help to create a fairer, more tolerant society in which everyone has an equal chance to flourish. Article 26 of the Human Rights Act confers a right to education.