EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES POLICY
1. GENERAL 1.1 OPALRANGE LIMITED is committed to a policy of equal opportunities for all employees, workers and applicants and shall adhere to such a policy at all times and will review on an ongoing basis on all aspects of recruitment to avoid unlawful or undesirable discrimination. OPALRANGE LIMITED will treat everyone equally irrespective of sex, sexual orientation, marital status, age, disability, race, colour, ethnic or national origin, religion, political beliefs or membership or nonmembership of a Trade Union and places an obligation upon all staff to respect and act in accordance with the policy. OPALRANGE LIMITED is committed to providing training for all its staff in equal opportunities practice. 2. SEX AND RACE DISCRIMINATION Unlawful sex or race discrimination occurs in the following circumstances: 2.1.Direct discrimination Under the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and the Race Relations Act 1976 direct discrimination occurs where one individual treats another individual less favourably on grounds of their sex or race than he treats or would treat other persons.
It is unlawful for a Company to discriminate against a person on the grounds of their sex, colour, race,
nationality, ethnic or national origins:
· in the terms on which the Company offers to provide any of its services;
· by refusing or omitting to provide any of its services;
· in the way it provides any of its services.
Direct discrimination would also occur if a Company accepted and acted upon a job registration from an
employer which states that certain persons are unacceptable because of their sex, colour, race, nationality, or ethnic or national origins, unless one of the exceptions applies.
2.2. Indirect Discrimination
A claim of indirect discrimination arises when an employer applies a requirement or condition generally, but
which is such a proportion of persons from one racial group who can comply with it is considerably smaller
than the proportion of persons not of that racial group who can comply with it.
Indirect discrimination would also occur if a Company accepted and acted upon an indirectly discriminatory
instruction from an employer.
OPALRANGE LIMITED will not discriminate unlawfully when selecting candidates or
for submission for a vacancy or in any terms of employment or terms of engagement for cleaning workers.
3. DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION
Under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, disability discrimination occurs if for a reason which relates to the
disabled person's disability an individual:
· treats him less favourably than he treats, or would treat others to whom that reason does not or would
not apply, and,
· the employer cannot show that the treatment in question is justified.
OPALRANGE LIMITED will not discriminate against a disabled job applicant or employee
on the grounds of disability
· in the arrangements i.e. application form, interview and arrangements for selection for determining to
whom a job should be offered; or
· in the terms on which employment is offered; or
· by refusing to offer, or deliberately not offering the disabled person a job for reasons connected with their Disability Or
· in the opportunities afforded to the person for receiving any benefit, or by refusing to afford, or
deliberately not affording him or her any such opportunity; or
· by subjecting him or her to any other detriment (detriment will include refusal of training, transfer, demotion, reduction of wage; or harassment).
OPALRANGE LIMITED will accordingly make career opportunities available to all people
with disabilities and every practical effort will be made to provide for the needs of staff and clients. Wherever possible OPALRANGE LIMITED will make reasonable adjustments to
hallways, passages and doors in order to provide and improve means of access for disabled employees and
workers. However, this may not always be feasible.
4. AGE DISCRIMINATION
OPALRANGE LIMITED will encourage clients not to include any age criteria or other
subjective criteria in job specifications and every attempt will be made to persuade clients to recruit on the basis
of competence and skill and not age.
OPALRANGE LIMITED is committed to recruiting and retaining employees whose skills,
experience, and attitude are appropriate to the requirements of the various positions regardless of age.
As far as is reasonably possible and in the most exceptional circumstances no age requirements will be stated in
any job advertisements on behalf of the company.
OPALRANGE LIMITED will request age as part of its recruitment process but information
will not be used in any detrimental way and is for compilation of personal data, which the company holds on all
employees and workers.
5. COMPLAINTS AND MONITORING PROCEDURES
OPALRANGE LIMITED has in place procedures for dealing with complaints of
discrimination. These are available from the person[s] in the office with responsibility for the equal opportunities
policy and will be made available immediately upon request. You should ensure that you have proper written
procedures for complaints together with details of your monitoring and reviewing procedures available with this
policy.
6. PART TIME WORKERS
This Equal Opportunities Policy also covers the treatment of those employees and workers who work on a parttime
basis. OPALRANGE LIMITED recognises that it is an essential part of this policy that
part time employees are treated on the same terms as full time employees (albeit on a pro rata basis) in matters
such as rates of pay, holiday entitlement, maternity leave, parental and domestic incident leave and access to
OPALRANGE LIMITED pension scheme. OPALRANGE LIMITED also Reconises That Part-time Employees must be treated
the same as full time employees in relation to training and redundancy situations
7. HARASSMENT POLICY
7. OPALRANGE LIMITED is permitted to providing a work environment free from unlawful harassment.
7.2 Harassment because of race, colour, creed, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin or ancestry, physical or mental disability, age or religion or any other basis protected by legislation is unlawful and will not be
tolerated by OPALRANGE LIMITED.
7.3 This policy prohibits unlawful harassment by any employee or worker of OPALRANGE LIMITED.
7.4 Examples of prohibited harassment are:
7.4 Examples of prohibited harassment are:
7.4.1 Verbal or written conduct containing derogatory jokes or comments, 7.4.2 Slurs or unwanted sexual advances
7.4.3 Visual conduct such as derogatory or sexually orientated posters, 7.4.4 Photographs, cartoons, drawings or gestures, 7.4.5 Physical conduct such as assault, unwanted touching, or any interference because of sex, race or any other
protected basis,
7.4.6 Threats and demands submit to sexual requests as a condition of continued employment or to avoid some
other loss, and offers of employment benefits in return for sexual favours
7.4.7 Retaliation for having reported or threatened to report harassment.
7.5 If you believe that you have been unlawfully harassed, you should make an immediate report to VINCENT
KNIGHT followed by a written complaint as soon as possible after the incident. Your complaint should
include:
Details of the incident
The name or names of the individual or individuals involved
The name or names of any witness or witnesses
8 OPALRANGE LIMITED will undertake a thorough investigation of the allegations. If it is Concluded That Unlawful
harassment has occurred, remedial action will be taken
9 Any employee who OPALRANGE LIMITED finds to be responsible for unlawful harassment will be subject to the
disciplinary procedure and any sanction may include termination. A person who discriminates or harasses may be liable for payment of damages to the person offended, in
addition to any damages payable by OPALRANGE LIMITED should it have been found
to have failed to ensure the practice ceased forthwith. Under the Criminal Justice Act 1994, harassment became
a criminal offence, punishable by a fine of up to £5,000 and/or a prison term of up to 6 months. Under the
Protection from Harassment Act 1997, the penalties for aggravated harassment are an unlimited fine and/or 5
years imprisonment.
8. GENDER REASSIGNMENT POLICY
8.1 OPALRANGE LIMITED recognises that any employee or worker may wish to change
their gender during the course of their employment with the Company.
8.2 OPALRANGE LIMITED will support any employee or worker through the reassignment
provided that full medical counselling has been undertaken and OPALRANGE LIMITED
has access to any relevant medical reports.
8.3 OPALRANGE LIMITED will make every effort to try and protect the employee or worker
undergoing reassignment within the work place.
8.4 All employees and workers will be expected to comply with OPALRANGE LIMITED
policy on harassment in the workplace. Any breach of such a policy will lead to the appropriate disciplinary
sanction.
8.5 Where an employee is engaged in work where the gender change imposes genuine problems OPALRANGE LIMITED will make every effort to reassign the employee or worker to an alternative role
in the Company.
8.6 Any employee or worker suffering discrimination as the result of their gender reassignment should make
recourse to the Company’s grievance procedure.
8.7 Any discrimination complaint will be investigated fully.