Purpose

Blue Cabin is committed to ensuring compliance with relevant equality legislation, the Equality Act 2010, codes of practice and relevant best practice guidance. This policy pursues and builds on the statutory position to ensure effective policies and practice of promoting equality.

Blue Cabin is committed to encouraging equality and diversity and promoting a culture that actively values difference and recognises that people from different backgrounds and experiences will bring valuable insights to the workplace and enhance the way we work. We aim to be an inclusive organisation, where diversity is valued, respected and built upon and aim to recruit and retain a diverse workforce that reflects the communities we serve.

Definition

Equality can be described as breaking down barriers, eliminating discrimination and ensuring equal opportunity and access for all groups both in employment, and to goods and services; the basis of which is supported and protected by legislation.

Diversity can be described as celebrating differences and valuing everyone. Each person is an individual with visible and non-visible differences and by respecting this everyone can feel valued for their contributions which is beneficial not only for the individual but for the company.

Recognising that people from different backgrounds and experiences who work together can contribute to a better and stronger team.

Equality and Diversity are not interchangeable but interdependent. There can be no equality of opportunity if difference is not valued and harnessed and taken account of.

Scope

This policy applies to employees of Blue Cabin, workers (engaged through, or by, an employment agency or bureau and supplied to Blue Cabin on a temporary basis), freelancers, external contractors and all job applicants regarding recruitment.

Where Blue Cabin’s services are provided by freelancers, external contractors or third parties, we will expect them to adhere to this Equality and Diversity Policy and will take all necessary steps to ensure good performance and compliance with appropriate behaviours.

Policy statement

Blue Cabin is committed to ensuring that existing employees, workers or job applicants, are treated fairly in an environment which is free from any form of discrimination with regard to the protected characteristics as outlined by the Equality Act 2010 which are:
● Age
● Disability
● Gender reassignment
● Marriage and civil partnership
● Pregnancy and maternity
● Race (includes colour, nationality and ethnic origins)
● Religion and or belief
● Sex
● Sexual orientation

In addition, existing employees, workers or job applicants are treated fairly in an environment which is free from any form of discrimination with regard to:

● Part-time employment
● Membership or non-membership of a trade union
● Spent convictions
● Class and / or social mobility
● All employment-related policies, practices and procedures are applied impartially and objectively.
● Equality of opportunity applies to all and provides staff with the opportunity to develop and realise their full potential.
● Blue Cabin works towards achieving a diverse workforce at all levels.
● Employees of Blue Cabin can work in an atmosphere of dignity and respect.

The Equality and Diversity policy provides a clear framework for translating our policy into action. It outlines the responsibilities of the Board, Director, and all other staff to comply with the Equality Act 2010. Blue Cabin will not tolerate processes, attitudes and behaviours that amount to direct discrimination, associative discrimination, discrimination by perception, indirect discrimination including harassment, victimisation and bullying through prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness or stereotyping.

Blue Cabin recognises the importance of monitoring, reviewing and reporting on its equality and diversity policy and practice and to measure progress in meeting our policy statement.

Practical support for a diverse workforce

As an employer committed to diversity and equality Blue Cabin recognises its success depends on creating a working environment which supports the diverse make-up of its staff with supporting policies and procedures to create a framework of assistance. Such support would include all practicable and reasonable adjustments to the workplace for people with a physical or mental disability, impairment or condition that has a substantial and long lasting effect (> 12 months) on their ability to carry out the agreed day-to-day activities. Adjustments to the work workplace might include the following areas:

● Buildings – access provisions
● Equipment – providing modified equipment
● Preparations for work – special training, modified manuals or procedures
● Organisational – allocating duties to another Employee, more supervision
● Working time – altering the person’s hours, allowing time off for treatment or rehabilitation

Work/life balance

Blue Cabin is committed to employees who have commitments outside work, irrespective of whether they have caring responsibilities. Blue Cabin is committed to helping its employees fulfil their potential at work whilst finding the right work/life balance by having a framework of policies such as the statutory right to request flexible working, and special leave to help with caring responsibilities and domestic emergencies. Blue Cabin is committed to supporting employees with family commitments.

Company Processes and associated Policies
Any process that involves differentiating employees could give rise to direct discrimination such as:

● Recruitment
● Promotion
● Rating or appraisal
● Training and development
● Redundancy
● Discipline
● Grievances
● Retirement
In these processes where it is necessary to differentiate between Employee’s, Blue Cabin will ensure that it is always done on items such as the following and not based upon a protected characteristic (age, race, etc.) but on:

● Skills
● Knowledge
● Capability
● Potential
● Performance
● Qualifications
All Blue Cabin policies and procedures such as the Working Time Policy, the performance management process, and hours of work, are designed to promote equal opportunities and protection against discrimination for all employees.

Review and monitoring

Blue Cabin will undertake monitoring that not only meets statutory requirements but also aims for best practice. This is used to inform and improve our employment practices. If through monitoring any discrimination is identified action will be taken to eliminate it.

The Director will monitor the make-up of the workforce. Such monitoring will be carried out using appropriate statistical analysis, and will normally deal with areas such as race, disability, gender, and age and ensure that as far as reasonably practicable the make-up of the workforce reflects the local community from where we recruit our staff.

Training

Blue Cabin is committed to ensuring its staff are fully aware of its equality and diversity policy and aims to ensure that adequate training is provided so that we are able to operate this policy effectively.

Discrimination

Discrimination is the process where an Employer either gives advantage to, or makes a detriment to an Employee with respect to other Employees. If the method of segregation or differentiation is one of the protected characteristics, then this is unlawful.

There are 6 different recognised forms of discrimination:

1. Direct discrimination
2. Indirect discrimination
3. Victimisation
4. Harassment
5. Associative
6. Perceptive

1 – Direct discrimination occurs where an Employee with a specific Protected characteristic (PC) has received less favourable treatment than a like Employee without the PC and the difference is because of the PC. Using an Employee to Employee comparator the discrimination can be identified.

2 – Indirect discrimination is where the Employer imposes a criterion, practice or policy that on face value is not discriminatory, but in practice affects different sections of the population in different ways. For example imposing a height restriction that was applied for all Employees e.g. minimum 6 feet, would indirectly discriminate against women as there would be a higher proportion of men who would satisfy this condition.

3 – Victimisation is where the Employer treats an Employee less favourably as a result of the Employee taking or threatening to take a discrimination claim (e.g. raising a grievance or progressing a tribunal claim for discrimination) against the Employer.

4 – Harassment is defined to have occurred on the grounds of a protected characteristic when an Employer or other Employee (or 3rd Party) engages in unwanted conduct which has the purpose or effect of violating an individual’s dignity or creating an interrogating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for the individual. This could include making jokes or offensive remarks about someone’s age.

5 – Associative – Associative discrimination is discrimination against a person because they have an association with someone with a particular protected characteristic. An example of associative discrimination might be a non-disabled employee who is discriminated against because of action he or she needs to take to care for a disabled dependant.

6 – Perceptive – Perceptive discrimination is discrimination against a person because the discriminator thinks the person possesses that characteristic, even if they do not in fact do so.

Complaints of Discrimination

Blue Cabin takes all claims of discrimination very seriously and will take appropriate action against those concerned. Discrimination occurs when someone directly or indirectly treats a person or a group of people unfavourably because of a protected characteristic of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation. This covers all behaviour including remarks and insinuation, both verbal and non-verbal, which cause offence.
Any member of staff who is subject to harassment, bullying or discrimination is encouraged to refer to Blue Cabin’s policy on Harassment and Bullying. This provides details of the steps that can be taken to deal with such an issue.
If a worker (engaged through, or by, an employment agency or bureau) considers they have been discriminated against they should raise their complaint directly with their employer.

Responsibility

All staff have a responsibility to guard against any form of discrimination and avoid any action which goes against the spirit of this policy. Thus staff at all levels must ensure that there is no discrimination in any of their decisions or behaviour. This includes the provision that all staff must:
● Report any suspected discriminatory acts or practices;
● Not induce or attempt to induce others to practice unlawful discrimination;
● Co-operate with any measures introduced to ensure equality of opportunity;
● Not victimise anyone as a result of them having complained about, reported or provided evidence of discrimination;
● Not harass, abuse or intimidate others.

Whilst all staff have a collective responsibility to ensure this policy is successfully implemented, there are also specific responsibilities within this.

The Board and Director are responsible for:
● Providing leadership on the equality and diversity strategy and policy, acting as overall champions to ensure the policy is implemented;
● Communicating the strategy and policy, internally and externally;
● Developing employment policy and strategy on equality and diversity;
● Providing guidance to line managers and staff;
● Supporting managers and senior staff in investigating issues relating to potential discrimination;
● Facilitating training and development initiatives on equality and diversity.

Managers and senior staff are responsible for:
● Implementing the policy as part of their day-to day management of staff and in applying employment policies and practices in a fair and equitable way;
● Ensuring equality and diversity issues are addressed in performance;
● Ensuring all staff act in accordance with the equality and diversity policy providing necessary support and direction;
● Effectively manage and deal promptly when investigating issues relating to potential discrimination.

Each employee is responsible for:
● Implementing the policy in their day-to-day work and their dealings with colleagues;
● Ensuring their behaviour is appropriate to the policy and that they treat people with respect and dignity;
● Not discriminating against other employees or service users;
● Notifying their line manager of any concerns with regard to the conduct of other employees, customers or third parties.

Non- Compliance with Policy

Blue Cabin will not tolerate any behaviour from staff which breaches our equality and diversity policy. Any such breaches will be regarded as misconduct except for serious offences such as discrimination on protected grounds; serious offences including harassment, bullying, or victimisation will be treated as gross misconduct and may lead to disciplinary action including dismissal from employment without notice.