EQUALITY

RING FORT SECURITY (RFS) LTD |EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES POLICY

 

1. Our Commitment

1.1 The Company is committed to provide equal opportunities in employment and to avoiding unlawful discrimination in employment and against customers.

1.2 This policy is intended to assist the Company to put this commitment into practice. Compliance with this policy should also ensure that employees do not commit unlawful acts of discrimination.

1.3 Striving to ensure that the work environment is free of harassment and bullying and that everyone is treated with dignity and respect is an important aspect of ensuring equal opportunities in employment.

 

2. The Law

2.1 The Company is committed to provide equal opportunities in employment and to avoiding unlawful discrimination in employment and against customers.

2.2 It is unlawful to discriminate directly or indirectly in recruitment or employment because of age, disability, sex, gender reassignment, pregnancy, maternity, race (which includes colour, nationality and ethnic or national origins), sexual orientation, religion or belief, or because someone is married or in a civil partnership. These are known as ‘protected characteristics’.

2.3 Discrimination after employment may also be unlawful, e.g. refusing to give a reference for a reason related to one of the protected characteristics.

 

3. Types of Unlawful Discrimination

• Direct discrimination - Indirect discrimination Harassment - Associative discrimination - Perceptive discrimination -

• Third party harassment - Victimisation - Failure to make reasonable adjustment

​

​

4. Equal Opportunities in Employment

4.1 The Company is committed to provide equal opportunities in employment and to avoiding unlawful discrimination in employment and against customers. The Company will avoid unlawful discrimination in all aspects of employment including recruitment, promotion, opportunities for training, pay and benefits, discipline and selection for redundancy.

4.2 Person and job specifications will be limited to those requirements that are necessary for the Effective Performance of the job. Candidates for employment or promotion will be assessed objectively against the requirements for the job, taking account of any reasonable adjustments that may be required for candidates with a disability. Disability and personal or home commitments will not form the basis of employment decisions except where necessary.

4.3 The Company will consider any possible indirectly discriminatory effect of its standard working practices, including the number of hours to be worked, the times at which these are to be worked and the place at which work is to be done, when considering requests for variations to these standard working practices and will refuse such requests only if the Company considers it has good reasons, unrelated to any protected characteristic, for doing so. The Company will comply with its obligations in relation to statutory requests for contract variations. The Company will also make reasonable adjustments to its standard working practices to overcome barriers caused by disability

​

5. Customers, Suppliers and Other People Not Employed by the Company

5.1 The Company will not discriminate unlawfully against customers using or seeking to use goods, facilities or services provided by the Company.

5.2 Employees should report any bullying or harassment by customers, suppliers, visitors or others to their manager who take appropriate action.

 

6. Training

6.1 The Company will provide training in equal opportunities to managers and others likely to be involved in recruitment or other decision making where equal opportunities issues are likely to arise.

6.2 The Company will provide training to all existing and new employees and others engaged to work at the Company to help them understand their rights and responsibilities under the Discrimination/Harassment and Complaints Policy and what they can do to help create a working environment free of bullying and harassment. The Company will provide additional training to managers to enable them deal more effectively with complaints of bullying and harassment.

​

7. Your Responsibilities

7.1 Every employee is required to assist the Company to meet its commitment to provide equal opportunities in employment and avoid unlawful discrimination.

7.2 Employees can be held personally liable as well as, or instead of the Company for any act of unlawful discrimination. Employees who commit serious acts of harassment may be guilty of a criminal offence.

7.3 Acts of discrimination, harassment, bullying or victimization against employees or customers are disciplinary offences and will be dealt with under the Company’s disciplinary procedure. Discrimination, harassment, bullying or victimization may constitute gross misconduct and could lead to dismissal without notice.

 

8. Grievances

8.1 If you consider that you may have been unlawfully discriminated against, you may use the Company’s grievance procedure to make a complaint. If your complaint involves bullying or harassment, the grievance procedure is modified as set out in the Discrimination/Harassment and Complaints Policy.

8.2 The Company will take any complaint seriously and will seek to resolve any grievance that it upholds. You will not be penalised for raising a grievance, even if your grievance is not upheld, unless your complaint is both untrue and made in bad faith.

8.3 Use of the Company’s grievance procedure does not affect your right to make a complaint to an employment tribunal. Complaints to an employment tribunal must normally be made within three months beginning with the act of discrimination complained of.

 

9. Monitoring and Review

9.1 This policy will be monitored periodically by the Company to judge its effectiveness and will be updated in accordance with changes in the law.

9.2 We recognise that discrimination in the workplace in any form is unacceptable and in most cases unlawful. We have therefore adopted an Equal Opportunities Policy to ensure that all job applicants and employees are treated fairly and without favour or prejudice. We are committed to applying this policy throughout all areas of employment, recruitment and selection, training, development and promotion. In all situations people will be judged solely on merit or ability. The following sets down the key points of the policy, and any breach of the policy will lead to disciplinary action which may include dismissal. This is created in line with the Equality Act 2010.

​
 

10. Method Statement

• Each and every employee has a duty to observe and apply the policy at all times.

• The policy will be implemented in accordance with the requirements of the Human Right Act, the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act, the Sex Discrimination Act, the Race Relations Act, the Disability Discrimination Act, the Gender Recognition Act, the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations, Employment Equality (Sexual Discrimination) Regulations and their various amendments.

• To ensure that we reach the widest cross section of the community, all vacancies will be advertised through the appropriate agencies, or independent media, as well as being advertised internally.

• We will ensure that no job applicant or employee receives less favourable treatment on the grounds of race, colour, nationality, ethnic, or national origin, sex, marital status, sexual orientation, disability, political opinion/affiliation, age religion or belief.

• Our application form will be as simple and straight forward as possible and we will not ask for unnecessary information.

• Interview questions will be related to the requirements of the job and we will not seek irrelevant qualifications. Applicants will be short listed/selected solely on the basis of capability.

• Each and every employee has an obligation to make a positive contribution towards engendering an environment of equal opportunity throughout the business.

• The Grievance Procedure is available to any individual who believes that they have been discriminated against, and we would urge those individuals to pursue their rights through this channel.

   

  10.1 This policy will be upheld at all times across all areas of business including recruitment, advertising, training and promotion. Where necessary the policy will be reviewed on an annual basis to ensure targets are being meet and where improvements can be made.