International EEO news
New grounds for future discrimination legislation?
A leading human rights expert has suggested three new grounds for future discrimination legislation- personal appearance including so-called “fattism”, social class and genetic information.
Michael Rubenstein writing in Equal Opportunities Review says he wanted to question whether we had come to the end of the road in terms of the grounds on which arbitrary discrimination in employment could be legally challenged.
While no other legislation was on the horizon, genetic information, personal appearance and social class were worthy of consideration as ground of discrimination, Rubenstein says.
Personal appearance discrimination is already unlawful in Washington DC, where the District of Columbia human rights law prohibits discrimination by employers on the grounds of “the outward appearance of any person, irrespective of sex, with regard to bodily condition or characteristics, manner or style of dress, and manner and style of personal grooming, including, but not limited to hair style and beards. It shall not relate, however, to the requirement of cleanliness, uniforms, or prescribed standards when uniformly applied…..”
Obesity, or so called “fattism” is the personal appearance issue that has received most attention because over weight people are discriminated against in employment and other contexts. Rubenstein cites a survey in Personnel Today that found 93% of employers would hire a “normal weight” applicant instead of an equally qualified obese candidate. The Obesity Awareness and Solutions Trust (TOAST) has called for anti-discrimination legislation.
While insurance companies in the UK are observing a voluntary moratorium on the use of genetic tests to set premiums, the Disability Rights Commission has called for legislation to regulate the use of personal genetic information, including extended the Disability Discrimination Act’s definition of disability to cover people who have a genetic predisposition to develop and impairment.
Last year over 25 major organisations including the Trade Union Congress called on the British government to introduce legislation to:
• prevent discrimination by employers and insurers on the basis of genetic test information;
• prohibit employers and insurance companies from using genetic test results to make employment decisions, deny health coverage or raise insurance premiums;
• guarantee genetic privacy and the right of people to refuse to undergo genetic testing; and ban insurers from requiring genetic tests, from requiring the disclosure of genetic test results, and from using the results of tests to increase insurance premiums or deny coverage.
Social class discrimination has received more attention in the UK where social class distinctions are more pronounced. Rubenstein states that in an employment context, discrimination on the grounds of social class means arbitrary, or subjective discrimination based on family background, the kind of secondary school someone attended, or on the way they speak. Snobbery still taints the recruitment policies of leading institutions in Great Britain.
Work-Life Balance Myth Debunked
One of the myths about work/life balance, that it does not work for senior staff, has been debunked by new research.
Working Families www.workingfamilies.org.uk carried out in-depth case studies of 23 senior managers who are working reduced hours or flexibly to show how the arrangements work in practice.
The results show there is a strong business case for facilitating senior managers to work on a reduced-hours or flexible basis. This is linked to improvements in retention, recruitment, energy, enthusiasm, effectiveness, motivation and long-term loyalty.
A British survey shows that three-quarters of employers would consider recruiting ex-offenders if they had the relevant skills for the job, but only if the government improves the support available to employers. www.cipd.co.uk/surveys.
Law Firms Urged to be more proactive
A ground-breaking analysis of ethnicity and gender in law firms, The Diversity League Table, published by the Black Solicitors Network, urges law firms to become more proactive in assessing the racial and gender composition of their staff. The survey lists three factors that require diversity to be treated as a mainstream issue. These are:
• multinational companies that have adopted a policy of recruiting a diverse workforce, to maintain their competitive advantage, are demanding that potential providers of legal services give details of their ethnicity and gender of their own staff,
• Government’s push, through the Department for Constitutional Affairs who wrote to the top 1200 UK law firms and 30 barristers’ chambers asking them to provide gender and ethnicity composition of their firms as part of government policy. It has been recommended that firms that do not provide the relevant demographic data should not be allowed to tender for government work,
• the demographics of multicultural Britain is likely to result in almost 75% of all law graduates being either women and/or from ethnic minority backgrounds.
Very few firms provided examples of specific targets or actions they were taking to enhance diversity in their organisations. However, good examples were found from a small number of firms.
Workplace counselling
A large Australian study of 725,000 employees across 389 Australian workplaces has found thirty-four per cent of all employees who seek counselling are men. Nearly 30 per cent of those seeking workplace counselling did so for issues related to alcohol (14%), gambling 8%, and drugs 7%. About 70 percent of workplace counselling cases were directly related to personal, non-work issues, despite businesses and organisations funding the support.
Flexible work
Watson Wyatt report that a third of Singaporean companies have flexible work arrangements and more than 70 percent of those companies have found them beneficial. A total of 26% said flexible work led to effective talent retention, 19% said it contributed to lower staff turnover, and 4% said their workforces demand flexibility.