Men = women?

A recent article on personneltoday focuses on the results of research conducted by recruitment consultancy, Robert Half. The research has found that more than three-quarters (78%) of HR directors believe that male employees do not have an advantage over females within the workplace.

The survey, completed by 180 HR directors, also found that half of those who did think that there was an imbalance between males and females at work believed that family commitments were responsible for this difference.

Respondents also identified a lack of promotion opportunities (42%) and the desire to maintain a good work-life balance (36%) as key factors behind the difference in men and women’s professional development.

Phil Sheridan, managing director of Robert Half UK, commented: “While it s encouraging that over three-quarters of HR directors don’t view men as having an advantageous position over women in the workplace, more needs to be done.

“Companies should regularly review their succession and remuneration plans to ensure that women are treated fairly and equally, with policies to take into account their family and personal commitments.”

Previous research by Friends Life found that more than half (55%) of women believed that there would still be a significant pay gap between men and women in 2020 and 53% thought that they would still be facing more barriers than men to secure senior roles.

The Equality Act 2010 states that it’s unlawful for an employer to discriminate against you because of your sex. The Act covers the following aspects of employment:

• recruitment
• employment terms and conditions
• pay and benefits
• training
• promotion and transfer opportunities
• redundancy
• dismissal

Equal terms – equal pay refers to where men and women whom work for the same employer, are doing one of the following, they are entitled to the same terms in their employment contract:

• the same or similar work (like work)
• work rated as equivalent in a job evaluation study by the employer
• work of equal value

Pay secrecy clauses in employment contracts are unenforceable if you are trying to find out if any difference in pay is connected with a 'protected characteristic', for example sex.

If you think you are being discriminated against, visit the direct.gov website for further advice on what to do next.

Tackling age discrimination

2010-11 Tribunals Service statistics have revealed that the number of age discrimination claims accepted by employment tribunals has risen by nearly one third (30.8%) to 6,800.

                                                        Personneltoday, 2011

                                                      

The statistics, which cover the period from 1st April 2010 until 21st March 2011, shows that the number of overall claims has decreased by 8% on the previous year.

Adrian Crawford, employment partner at law firm Kingsley Napley, comments: "It is noteworthy that while age discrimination claims are still a long way behind sex discrimination, they are now catching up with disability claims and have overtaken race-related claims to be the third most frequent type of discrimination action.

"Everybody has an age so anyone can potentially formulate an age discrimination claim. This may explain why there are already so many claims even before we have felt the impact of the abolition of the default retirement age, which is likely to lead to a huge increase in age discrimination claims."

Housing Jobs prides itself on providing a discrimination free job seeking process. The ability to upload/view job descriptions, person specifications and create tailored job descriptions helps housing associations reach their equality and diversity aims.

All aspects of employment are protected from age discrimination. This includes:

•Recruitment – advertising/application forms and interviewing
•Training
•Promotions and transfers
•Employment benefits
•Employment terms and conditions
•Flexible working
•Redundancy
•Retirement
•Sickness benefit
•Dismissals

If you think you may have been a victim of age discrimination, visit the direct.gov.uk website for help on what to do next.