Understanding the management of diversity in the workplace is a significant concern for most employers. An employer already has an obligation to operate in a fashion that avoids sex, race, disability, religious discrimination and also on the grounds of sexual orientation and from October 2006, Age was also added. Potentially Age Discrimination is the biggest management challenge.

By virtue of seniority and experience the best paid staff are likely to be the older ones. If an individual feels that he/she has been passed over for promotion or selected for redundancy on the grounds of age, then not just is that person likely to have a great deal at stake leading them to consider a claim on the grounds of age discrimination, they are also more likely to have the funds to bring a case. Regardless of age discrimination, the reality is that a younger employee is much more likely to find work quickly than somebody in their 50s. An employee in his/her 50s claiming dismissal was age related and that he/she will not work again before retirement, is likely to prove a very expensive risk.

By now, employers should be used to gearing their policies and procedures in such a way that is gender and race neutral. Steps will have to be taken to ensure that all advertisements and policies are similarly age neutral. Combinations of words in job advertisements, such as young and enthusiastic, are likely to prove costly mistakes.

Discrimination surfaces in all manner of surprising ways. Anybody on maternity leave or long term sick leave will need to be kept in the loop so far as information and vacancies are concerned. In the case of Visa International Service Association v Paul EAT 2004 IRLR 42 it was held that a woman absent on maternity leave had the right to be notified of matters that might be relevant to her career. This included job opportunities or promotions. In her case she claimed that a position of Operating Regulations Analyst filled by an external candidate, was a vacancy and a promotion in which she might have been interested. Having failed to be notified she resigned from Visa on 23 January 2001 and made a claim of constructive dismissal and sex discrimination on the automatically unfair grounds of pregnancy related dismissal. The Tribunal held that there had been a breach of the implied term of mutual trust and confidence and the dismissal was directly due to her maternity leave and was therefore automatically unfair. She was awarded a total of £25,900 as compensation

At Employment Relations we can help prepare and implement the appropriate procedures. We can also offer training to your staff and management in this difficult area.

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