Gaitherin 2009

This Code of Practice

• covers the entire personnel process from the moment a vacancy is advertised.

• incorporates a review of all the principal conditions governing employees' service with the Gordon Gaitherin.

• covers the recruitment and selection of both paid and unpaid staff.

• covers access to the services provided by the Gordon Gaitherin to young people.

The Code of Practice outlines the main objectives of the organisation’s Equal Opportunity Policy for all those who work for the organisation. It is a statement of intent to be achieved through established consultation procedures. The framework for this code is the organisation’s agreed Equal Opportunity Policy statement.

"The aim of the equal opportunities policy is to ensure that no job applicant, employee or volunteer, participant or potential participant, receives less favourable treatment than any other on any grounds, including disability, sex, race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origins, marital status, sexuality, age, trade union activity, political or religious belief or is disadvantaged by conditions or requirements which cannot be shown to be justifiable. The organisation is convinced that it is morally wrong to hinder equality of opportunity on such grounds, and further, recognises that passive policies will not in themselves provide equality of opportunity. Consequently, the organisation will actively promote equality of opportunity."

The Aims of The Gaitherin

• That no job applicant, paid or unpaid member of staff, participant or potential participant, receives less favourable treatment than another on the grounds of being a member of a disadvantaged group as above

• That no applicant, paid or unpaid member of staff, participant or potential participant, is placed at a disadvantage by requirements or conditions which have a disproportionately adverse effect on his or her disadvantaged group.

  • In particular:

    • That any qualifications or requirements applied to a job which effectively restrict it to applicants of one sex or particular marital status should be kept only if they are justifiable in terms of the job to be done.

    • That where appropriate and permissible, employees are given special training and encouragement to achieve equal opportunity within the organisation.

    • That any age requirements should be kept only if they are imposed by statute or are necessary for the job or activity. An unjustifiable upper age limit could constitute unlawful indirect discrimination, for example, against women who have taken time out of employment for child-rearing.

    • That each individual should be assessed according to his or her capability to carry out a given job. It should not be assumed that men only or women only will be able to do certain kinds of work.

    • That steps are taken to provide increased employment opportunities for people with disabilities.

    • That any requirements or assessments applied to participants or potential participants should be fair and free from discrimination.

    • That discriminatory behaviour, including verbal or physical assault by or against a participant or potential participant should not be tolerated under any circumstances.

What The Law Says

In general, most law on discrimination is related to employment. However, we will attempt to use the same principles in relation to access to the Gaitherin activities.

Race Discrimination (Race Relations Act 1976)

The Race Relations Act 1976 makes it unlawful to discriminate against a person, directly or indirectly, in the field of employment.
Direct discrimination consists of treating a person, on racial grounds, less favourably than others are, or would be, treated in the same circumstances.
Racial grounds are the grounds of race, colour and nationality, including citizenship, or ethnic or national origins - and groups defined by reference to these grounds are referred to as racial groups.
Segregating a person from others on racial grounds constitutes less favourable treatment.
Indirect discrimination consists of applying in any circumstances covered by the Act a requirement or condition which, intentionally or not, has a disproportionately adverse effect on a particular racial group and cannot be shown to be justifiable on other than racial grounds.

Examples of indirect discrimination would be recruiting from sources which exclude areas of high settlement of racial minority groups or setting language tests or educational qualification levels above the minimum needed for a job or post.

Sex Discrimination (Sex Discrimination Act 1975) and Equal Pay Act 1970, (amended 1983)

Direct sex discrimination occurs where a person of one sex is treated less favourably, on grounds of sex, than a person of the other sex would be in the same or not materially different circumstances.
Indirect sex discrimination can occur where a requirement or condition is applied equally to men and women.
Such a requirement or condition may nevertheless discriminate indirectly because the proportion of one sex which can comply with it is much smaller than the proportion of the other sex which can comply with it.
A complainant would have to show that it is to her/his detriment that she/he cannot comply.
In a case brought before an Industrial Tribunal an employer would be required to show that the requirement complained of is necessary for the job, irrespective of sex.
Unless it can be justified it will be unlawful, whether or not it was the intention of the employer to discriminate.
Marriage discrimination occurs where a married person is treated more or less favourably, on grounds of marital status, than an unmarried person of the same sex would be in the same or not materially different circumstances.
The discrimination may be direct or indirect as explained above.
Men and women must be paid the same rates of pay for the same work or work of "like value" subject to other factors such as qualifications, length of service etc.

Disability Discrimination Act 1995

This gives people with disabilities the right not to be discriminated against in employment, as well as a right to access to goods and services.
This Act also requires employers to make a "reasonable adjustment" to working arrangements or the workplace where that would help to overcome the practical effects of a disability.
Discrimination on grounds of disability occurs where a disabled person is treated less favourably on the grounds of his/her disability than a person without a disability would be in the same or not materially different circumstances.
The discrimination may be direct or indirect.
As far as is possible, the Gaitherin will strive to make all the activities available to all young people, regardless of disability.
This will be achieved by:

1. Informing all young people of what the Gaitherin offers.

2. Using buildings and venues which offer good physical access.

3. Employing additional support where this is needed to support the young person to fully participate in activities.

Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and Police Act 1977

We undertake to treat all applicants for positions within the organisation fairly and not to discriminate unfairly against the subject of a disclosure on the basis of conviction or other information revealed.
We will only request a Standard or Enhanced disclosure where it is necessary and relevant to the position sought.
Where a position requires a disclosure we will make this clear on the application form, job advert and any other information provided about the post.
At interview we will ensure that open and measured discussions can take place on the subject of offences.
Failure to reveal information at interview, that is directly relevant to the position sought could lead to withdrawal of an offer of work with the Gaitherin.
At interview or when receiving a disclosure which shows a conviction, we will take into consideration:

• Whether the conviction is relevant to the position being offered

• The seriousness of the offence revealed.

• The length of time since the offence took place

• Whether the applicant has a pattern of offending behaviour

• Whether the applicant’s circumstances have changed since offending took place.

We will ensure that everyone involved in the selection process is aware of this policy and has received relevant training and support.
We undertake to make a copy of this policy and the Code of Practice, available to anyone wishing to work with the Gaitherin where the position requires a disclosure.

Stereotyping

This means attributing certain characteristics to people because they belong to a particular group.
For example, believing that people with disabilities have more time off with illness than other staff - this is not the case.

Harassment

• Behaviour which is unwelcome, unreciprocated and offensive to the recipient.

• What matters is how it feels to the individual.

• It is no excuse to say "but I only meant it as a joke".

• Unwanted behaviour is never a joke or harmless fun.

• It includes comments, actions, jokes or suggestions which might create a stressful working environment.

• It is intimidating, very unpleasant and often threatening.

• Such behaviours can be persistent, or can take the form of an isolated incident towards one, or more individuals.

• It can be physical contact, verbal or non-verbal (e.g. printed material).

• Although most cases of harassment are sexual or racial, it can also happen without any identifiable reason - for instance when someone just takes a personal dislike to an individual.

• Included in the definition is behaviour known as "corporate bullying" where a person (usually someone in authority) abuses that position and uses an intimidating management style.

• Harassment is contrary to our policy and regarded as a disciplinary offence which could lead to dismissal.

• In addition, harassment and victimisation are now potentially criminal offences.

Victimisation

Victimisation occurs where a person is treated less favourably than other persons are, or would be treated because she/he has done something by reference to the Equal Pay Act, the Sex Discrimination Act, or the Race Relations Act.
Victimisation also consists of taking action against a person for asserting their rights under the Acts.
An example of this would be if a person brought proceedings or gave evidence or information in a case under the Acts or alleged (expressly or otherwise) that anyone had committed an act which could constitute a breach of the legislation and was therefore treated less favourably because of those proceedings.
There can, however, be no unlawful victimisation if the allegation was not made in good faith.

Taking Positive Action

Positive measures are allowed by the law to encourage employees who are members of disadvantaged groups which have been under-represented in particular work areas to receive special training programmes.
At the advertising stage, the organisation may encourage applications from members of under-represented groups.
Except in the case of disabled persons, the organisation cannot give preference to under-represented groups at the final selection.
Positive measures may include:

• job advertisements and contact with under-represented groups to encourage the application of women, ethnic minorities and disabled persons.

• recruitment and training schemes for school leavers, in particular for young women, members of ethnic minorities, and young disabled persons.

• encouraging women, ethnic minorities and disabled persons to apply for promotion and transfer opportunities, through careers counselling or training schemes.

• special training schemes for women and members of ethnic minorities who show potential for promotion or skills training but who lack the necessary qualifications/special training and research to enable more people with disabilities to have full and satisfying careers.

• language training may be included as part of supervisory training.

The Responsibilities of The Gaitherin

To ensure that the Equal Opportunity Policy is fully effective, the Gordon Gaitherin Management Committee has overall responsibility for the implementation of policy through the following actions:

• to make sure that the policy is known to all participants, paid staff or volunteers and those who wish to be involved in the Gaitherin’s activities, to take appropriate action in accordance with established procedures against person who is found to infringe it.

• to provide guidance for everyone, particularly relevant decision makers, (including Youth Committee and Management Committee, all line managers, supervisors, and reception staff), to make sure that they understand their responsibilities under the law and under the organisation’s Equal Opportunity Policy.

• to examine and regularly review existing procedures and criteria and change them where they are found to be actually or potentially discriminatory.

• to draw up positive action policies to put right existing imbalances.

• to monitor the composition of the workforce and those taking part in the Gaitherin’s activities by sex, ethnic origin and disability and of potential tutors and volunteers on a regular basis, in order to evaluate the progress of the policy.

• to promote employment and volunteer opportunities for women, ethnic minorities and people with disabilities in line with the organisation’s policy.

• to inform its staff, paid or unpaid, of their responsibilities and opportunities under the equal rights legislation and the policy.

What The Gaitherin Expects From Everyone

Individual members of staff and volunteers at all levels have responsibilities in implementing the Equal Opportunity Policy.
Getting rid of discrimination depends as much on them as on management.
They can also help to protect themselves by understanding those sections of the Code which are relevant to their jobs.
In particular, individual members of staff and volunteers:

• must co-operate with measures introduced by the Management Committee to make sure there is equal opportunity and no discrimination.

• must not themselves discriminate, for example, as supervisors or as persons responsible for any decisions or in relation to colleagues or prospective members of staff.

• must not induce or attempt to induce other members of staff or management to practise discrimination, in terms of this Code of Practice, for example, by refusing to accept members of staff, paid or unpaid, or participants/potential participants from particular racial groups; by refusing to work with an ethnic minority, women, or disabled supervisor; or by seeking formal agreements which would adversely affect women, disabled people or members of ethnic minority groups on racial grounds.

• must draw the attention of management to suspected discriminatory acts or practices.

• must not condone discriminatory behaviour by participants towards other participants or staff members.

• must not victimise or attempt to victimise individuals on the grounds that they have made complaints or provided information about discrimination in terms of this Code of Practice.

• must not harass, abuse or intimidate other members of staff. Where members of staff in positions of authority in the course of their work commit such incidents, this is considered as a particularly serious offence and will render the member of staff liable for disciplinary action, which could lead to dismissal.

Monitoring

It is the Gaitherin’s policy to monitor the equal opportunities aspects of all our activities. The information recorded on our database will be needed for the following purposes:

• to produce statistical analyses which will help to identify and diagnose problems and which will enable the effectiveness of the organisation’s Equal Opportunity Policy in action to be assessed.

• to improve the recruitment and selection process for all staff.

• to improve the application process for all participants.

• to be used in case of a grievance relevant to equal opportunities. (All parties to a grievance would have access to such information where relevant).

• to enable the organisation to design and improve its positive action programmes.

Procedures have been set up to monitor the following areas:

• the ethnic background, school of attendance, age, gender, disabled and level of financial subsidy composition of the participants in Gaitherin activities and changes in its distribution over a period of time.

• the number and nature of reported complaints. Monitoring in this way will discover, for example, whether individuals from disadvantaged groups or from particular areas do not apply to take part in Gaitherin activities, or that fewer apply than might be expected. If any such patterns are identified, the reasons will be investigated. If direct or indirect discrimination is found, appropriate and necessary steps will be taken to remedy the situation.

The Gordon Gaitherin abides by the law on the gathering and storing of personal information as detailed in the Data Protection Act (1984 & 1998.)

Good Employment Practice

This section of the organisation’s Code describes those good employment practices which will help eliminate discrimination.
It recommends the establishment and use of consistent and justifiable criteria for selection, training, promotion, redundancy, grievance, discipline and career development.
Without consistency, decisions can be subjective and leave the way open for discrimination to occur.

Recruitment - attracting a field of candidates

Discrimination in recruitment

It is unlawful for an employer to discriminate when recruiting employees in any of these ways:

• In the arrangements made for deciding who should be offered a job. An example might be advertising a job in a place where only one sex would have the opportunity of seeing the advertisement.

• In relation to any terms offered (for instance, in respect of pay or holidays). For example, it is unlawful to offer a job (whether or not the candidate accepts it), where the terms would be a breach of the Equal Pay Act.

• By refusing or deliberately omitting to offer a person employment on grounds of sex or marital status, for example, by rejecting an application or deliberately refusing consideration of an application.

As it is unlawful to restrict unnecessarily fields of applicants, it is essential that the organisation should make its employment opportunities available to the widest possible range of applicants.

Recruitment Procedure - General

• Publicity materials must reflect the Equal Opportunity Policy. For example, disadvantaged groups should figure in photographs or any case histories presented.

• Personal recommendations from existing employees as a primary or sole method of attracting applicants is likely to be discriminatory.

• All recruitment vacancies which are not filled internally, must be made known outside the organisation by means which will give equal access to all sections of the community seeking employment.

• Equal access can only be given when special efforts are undertaken to make sure that information about job vacancies reaches those who are under- represented or absent either in the workforce as a whole, or in specific occupations or specific sections. This is specifically permitted in the Sex Discrimination Act and Race Relations Act.

• Vacancies and training opportunities will be appropriately publicised to make sure that employees have full access to information about transfer and promotion opportunities.

• Advertisements must be clear and unambiguous in their requirements so that applicants will be able to determine their own suitability.

• A standard equal opportunities statement has been agreed which must appear on all advertisements:
  "The Gordon Gaitherin is striving to be an equal opportunities organisation."

• Where advertisements state "for further information please contact..." this should be strictly limited to giving candidates factual information about qualifications experience required by candidates in accordance with the personnel specification and must not be used as an informal sorting procedure.

Job description and person specification

It is important to the applicant and the selection panel that the requirements of the job are clearly outlined in an accurate job description and person specification agreed by the Management Committee in consultation with the Youth Committee and other agencies who have a rightful say in these matters.
This reduces the possibility of direct or indirect discrimination occurring at any stage of the selection procedure and makes sure of a clear and justifiable basis for future selection decisions.

Guidelines

• all job descriptions should be written in a clear and concise manner.

• job descriptions and skills required should be reviewed before recruitment action begins -any skills specified should be strictly relevant to the requirements of the job. These should not be unnecessarily restrictive so as to exclude particular or disadvantaged groups, since this may be indirect discrimination and therefore unlawful.

• all stated entry requirements must be clearly justifiable in terms of the principal functions of the post. For example, care should be taken in the following: requiring specific qualifications rather than the ability to do the job; using criteria such as age to determine responsibility; including reference to "preferred" criteria rather than criteria which are essential to the requirements of the job; confusing minimum person requirements with optimum person requirements.

• the criteria/qualifications set out in personnel specifications should not exceed the minimum laid down by award-giving bodies.

Application, short-listing and interview panels

Selection tests

• Selection tests should be specifically related to the job requirements and should measure an individual's actual or inherent ability to do or train for the particular work or career.

• Tests should be checked regularly to make sure that they remain relevant and free from any unjustifiable sex, disability or race bias, either in content or in scoring mechanism.

• Selection tests must be validated to make sure that they are related to the jobs' requirements, that is, an individual's test markings should measure their ability to do the job in question.

• Selection tests must be administered in such a way as to minimise irrelevant culture bias. It must not be assumed that overseas degrees or diplomas are of a lower standard than comparable qualifications from the UK - independent education guidance must be sought and followed.

Some applicants may be unfamiliar with testing and may subsequently under-perform in a test environment.
Always forewarn candidates when tests are to be used and explain what is involved.

Applications and short-listings

• Shortlisting must be based only on the information contained in the application form using the job and skills description as the criteria.

• The criteria for initial selection must be consistently applied to all applicants.

• The application form should not be used as a test of literacy unless a high standard of literacy is a genuine requirement of the job, in which case, this will have been predetermined at the Personnel Specification stage.

• Where academic qualifications are one of the criteria for initial selection, these should not be unnecessarily high for the particular job.

• Assumptions must not be made about the standard of overseas qualifications.

• There should be no artificial restrictions on the numbers from any disadvantaged group when shortlisting.

• The adoption of quotas is both unlawful and unnecessary.

• Any potentially suitable applicant with a disability should be interviewed irrespective of any requirement to adapt buildings or facilities should they be successful. This applies equally to existing employees who are newly disabled.

• Special arrangements should be made to facilitate attendance at such interviews.

• Reasons for rejection or shortlisting must be recorded.

Interview Panels

• All interviewers should at some stage be trained in interviewing techniques.

• This should incorporate equal opportunities training.

• Interviewers should not imply discrimination by asking questions either about personal circumstances which are unrelated to the requirements of the job, or else designed to test more rigorously certain candidates on the basis of sex, race or disability. For example, candidates should not be asked questions about their personal circumstances or family commitments unless they are related to the requirements of the job, in which case the same question should be asked equally of all those interviewed.

• Neither should candidates be asked questions about their ethnic origin or that of their family or how they would react to a supervisor of a different sex or race.

• Where a job involves unsocial or irregular hours or travel, the full facts should be presented to all applicants before the interview.

• The interviewer(s) should establish by simple question whether or not all candidates have fully understood the requirements of the job.

• In determining whether to reject a candidate, interviewers may only consider factors relevant to the job.

• When a candidate does not possess a certain requirement for a job but is nevertheless shortlisted for interview, the candidate should not be subsequently rejected solely on the grounds of not possessing that requirement.

• Reasons for rejection should be recorded for later incorporation into the selection monitoring process.

• Where there is doubt about the suitability of a candidate for employment because of the nature of their disability, further advice should be sought through the Management Committee as to the nature of the disability and about the availability of aids in employment or adaptation of buildings before a decision to reject is taken.

• The interview should be used as a vehicle to promote the Equal Opportunity Policy and to test the candidate's view of it. A candidate's expressed opposition to the operation of the Equal Opportunity Policy could represent sufficient grounds for non-selection.

• If any members of an interviewing panel feel that discrimination has occurred in the selection process, the matter must be reported immediately to the Management Committee Chairperson.

• No selection decision should be made until the issue is resolved.

• In the interview, candidates from ethnic minorities should not be asked questions which could be seen as directly or indirectly discriminatory, e.g. questions which test their understanding of UK customs.

• Neither should their fluency in the English language be used as a selection criteria unless this is a bona fide requirement of the job.

• Selection decisions must not be influenced either by the traditional racial or sexual profile of the postholder or else by any colleague's unwillingness to work with, for example a woman, a black person or a person with a disability.

• Wherever possible, candidates should be given the reasons for rejection, after consultation with the Management Committee since this will be of use for their personal career development.

Access To Services

The Gordon Gaitherin will attempt to apply the same principles in relation to access to activities for participants or potential participants as they do in relation to employment matters.