This is when a policy is found to affect one or more of protected characteristics and the effect is an unfavourable, or adverse, one. If this happens you should first of all consider if the adverse impact could be unlawfully discriminatory and also what measures you can take to mitigate the adverse impact, perhaps by taking an alternative approach.

BME refers to Black Minority Ethnic groups and is the language often used within the equalities field. The Greater London Authority and all related bodies use the acronym BAME, which refers to Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups.

Demographics are population or consumer statistics regarding socioeconomic factors such as age, income, sex, occupation, education, family size, and the like.

Until the Equality Act came into effect in 2010, the DDA was the primary piece of UK legislation governing discrimination on the grounds of disability.

Direct discrimination consists of treating a person less favourably than others are or would be treated, on the grounds of race, sex, disability, religion or belief, sexual orientation or age. It includes instruction and pressure to discriminate, harassment, victimisation and racial segregation. The law is not interested in the employer's motives. Provided that a claimant puts forward facts which appear to support a claim of discrimination, a tribunal will uphold the complaint unless the employer has a reasonable explanation. It is the employer's responsibility to be familiar with the legislation.

This includes practices which look fair but have discriminatory side effects, which may or may not be intended. It applies when an apparently neutral provision, criterion or practice disadvantages members of one group relative to others. Such discrimination is unlawful unless the provision, criterion or practice can be objectively justified by a legitimate aim, such as the requirements of the job. A tribunal will also consider whether the means used is appropriate and necessary. An example of indirect discrimination would be a criterion for promotion being 5 continuous years service – this could indirectly discriminate against women who are more likely than men to have taken a break in their career to have and raise children.

Positive discrimination refers to the preferential treatment of members of a minority group over members of a majority group (e.g. females over males, or Asians over Whites). Preferential treatment for members of a minority group is unlawful unless it is part of a Positive Action process or there is a Genuine Occupational Requirement.

Diversity in a workplace setting involves:

• Valuing people’s differences both visible and non-visible. These differences will include factors such as sex, age, background, race, sexual orientation, disability, religion or belief, personality and work style


• Managing the needs and contributions of a diverse workforce


• Positive harnessing and uncovering of all talent


• A proactive positive strategy
  

The Employment Act 2002 contains a wide ranging package of employment legislation. The following areas are of particular relevance:

• All employees are entitled to take 26 weeks ordinary maternity leave. 


• Employees who adopt a child are broadly entitled to the same benefits as those who are entitled to maternity leave.


• Working parents, usually the father, and adoptive parents are also entitled to paid paternity leave.

The Act places a duty on employers to give serious consideration to requests of parents with young children under 6 years old, or disabled children under 18, to work flexible hours. Employers can only refuse a request for flexible hours where there is a clear business reason for doing so.

The Civil Partnerships Act gives same-sex couples who register as civil partners similar rights and responsibilities to married couples. Any employment benefits provided for the spouse of a married employee must therefore be extended to civil partners, for example Christmas parties for employees and spouses and staff discounts.

This act means that harassment victims are entitled to bring a claim against the employer under the relevant employment legislation as well as against a particular employee. 

Whether the action was intended to cause offence or not does not matter – if the victim finds the behaviour unacceptable and he or she feels damaged or harmed by it, this constitutes potential harassment.

This means tackling historic barriers of discrimination and disadvantage, which can be experienced by particular groups of people, such as carers, disabled people, women, people from ethnic minorities, gay men and lesbians, older people and people with a particular faith and religion.

Assessing existing and proposed policies to determine whether they have an adverse impact on equality of opportunity for one or more of the equality groups (race, gender, disability etc). Impact Assessments should include both qualitative and quantitative data. EIAs are an important part of public authorities' statutory duties.

The Gender Equality Duty was replaced by the new Public Sector Duty which came into effect on the 5th of April 2011. Previously the Gender Equality Duty required all public authorities in England, Wales and Scotland to demonstrate that they were promoting equality for women and men and that they are eliminating sexual discrimination and harassment.

Exceptions to the law regarding discrimination are permissible in those cases where someone’s gender, race, religion or belief, or sexual orientation is genuinely needed for them to be able to carry out their duties. What employers may legitimately claim as a GOR for a job varies according to the characteristic being discriminated on. However, in general the onus is on the employer to demonstrate that the characteristic concerned is a genuine requirement for the job, crucial to the job’s performance, and that it is proportionate to apply the requirement in the case in question. Further information is given in the later section on Discrimination.

For example, it would be a Genuine Occupational Requirement to request an individual to provide personal services to people from a particular racial group, defined by colour or nationality, in order to promote their welfare, which only a person of the same colour or nationality can do most effectively. 

Harassment is unwanted and unsolicited conduct which is personally offensive to the recipient and, therefore, fails to respect the rights and dignity of others. It may include suggestive remarks or gestures, pin-ups, graffiti, offensive comments, jokes and banter.

Harassment can be defined as:
'Unwanted conduct related to any of the grounds covered by the legislation which takes place with the purpose or effect of violating the dignity of a person and/or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment.'

Harassment is often based on group membership and may focus on age, disability, nationality, race, sex, sexual orientation, family status, religion or any other personal characteristic, and may affect the dignity of any individual or group of individuals at work. Harassment could be a one off event or a series of events and may be perpetrated by an individual or group of people.

It is important to note that the courts are primarily interested in the impact of harassment on the recipient – they disregard the intentions of the alleged perpetrator. For example, an individual may regard remarks made to a colleague about their gender as 'harmless banter', but if the colleague finds them offensive then legally this may constitute harassment.

Employers are responsible for ensuring that the workplace is free of harassment. Employers are liable for the behaviour of their employees unless they take reasonable steps to prevent the behaviour occurring.

The courts also consider the workplace to extend beyond immediate working hours and premises to include work related social events. This covers events such as office parties and departmental drinks at the pub.

Most impairments are not visible. Hidden impairments include mental and cognitive conditions, some visual and hearing conditions, as well as epilepsy, diabetes and dyslexia.

A minority owned business is at least 51% owned by people from one or more minority background

New mothers are entitled to a maximum of 52 weeks maternity leave regardless of their length of service. Different statutory and contractual rights exist between the first six months (26 weeks) of maternity leave (Ordinary Maternity Leave – OML) and the second six months (Additional Maternity Leave - AML). During OML all employees have an entitlement to receive all contractual benefits (except salary). During AML only statutory annual leave (currently twenty days per annum) continues to accrue (unless the contract of employment states something different). For example, an employee will have an entitlement to a company car during OML but not AML.

The new Regulations have introduced ‘keeping in touch’ days, which makes provisions for an employee to do up to 10 days work during her maternity leave without losing her maternity leave or benefits. There is no obligation to carry out this work and any work carried out must be with agreement between the employer and employee.

A management techinque to help you to understand the external environment in which the organisation operates

PESTLE analysis is a popular method of examining the many different external factors affecting an organisation - the outside influences on success or failure.

These factors may be differentiated in six ways

P - Poltical - The currect and potential influences from political pressures

E - Economic - The local, national and world economy impact

S - Sociological - The ways in which changes in society affect us

T - Technological - How new and emerging technology affects our business

L - Legal - How local, national and world legislation affects us

E - Environmental - The local, national and world environmental issues

The main problem with these external PESTLE factors is that they are continuously changing. So PESTLE analysis should include a thorough analysis of what is affecting the organisation Now, and what is likely to affect it in the Future.

The result of a PESTLE analysis is usually a list of positive and negative factors that are likely to affect business. However, by themselves they mean very little. It is important to bear in mind, that PESTLE analysis requires careful Application of results.

The six factors may be applied to the whole of the organisation, or to specific business areas, or to specific parts of business areas, in order to contemplate the likely effects.

The Race Equality Duty was replaced by the new Public Sector Equality Duty on 5th April 2011. Previously the Race Equality Duty, established in the Race Relations Act, gave public authorities a new statutory duty to promote race equality. The aim of this duty was to help public authorities provide fair and accessible services, and to improve equal opportunities in employment.

In statistics, a result is called significant if it is unlikely to have occurred by chance. 'A statistically significant difference' simply means there is statistical evidence that there is a difference; it does not mean the difference is necessarily large, important or significant in the usual sense of the word.

Targets are not quotas. Targets are a numerical benchmark or goal against which to measure progress and the size of the change needed. The achievement of targets is not an end in itself. Whether externally imposed or set from within the organisation, targets are a mechanism for concentrating an organisation on milestones towards the achievement of fair representation. Targets represent an aspiration, based on the expected or desired outcome if systems are equitable. Targets can be expressed as a minimum percentage, for example, of the proportion of all new recruits to the workforce x percentage will be from ethnic minority groups. Targets can also be used to measure parity of outcomes - such as relative success rates.

These Regulations were superseded by the Equality Act 2010. Previously they outlawed discrimination on the grounds of religion or religious belief (actual or perceived) as well as discrimination due to association with members of a particular faith

The RRA was superseded by the Single Equality Act 2010. Previously the RRA covered discrimination before, during and following employment on the following grounds:

Race;
Colour;
Nationality;
Ethnic origin (groups with a long shared history and culture including Romany gypsies, Sikhs, Jews);
National origin. This is determined by the nationality of a person’s parents.

This way of thinking about disability was developed by disabled academics. It outlines how the poverty, disadvantage and social exclusion experienced by disabled people are not the inevitable result of their impairments and long-term health conditions. Instead, they stem from attitudinal and environment barriers throughout society. In other words, it is these barriers that disable people with impairments, those who have had impairments, those thought to have impairments and those associated with impairments, such as family members.

While the Disability Discrimination Act takes a 'medical model' approach to disability, by seeking to define a group of people in terms purely of the impact of their impairment for protection from discrimination, it is nevertheless concerned with tackling barriers to participation and social inclusion.

This is a broad term used to describe people whose lifestyles appear to conflict with the gender 'norms' of society. A trans person can express a different gender in their clothing or in how they present themselves. Some, transsexual people, may undergo a process to change their body to match their gender identity.