How will the new equality duties affect me as a construction firm? Five things construction firms should know about the new legislation.

From the 5^th April the new equality duties come into force.  I know that for some of you the idea of additional legislation is not an attractive one, whilst for others diversity is something you have been looking to improve for some time.  Personally I hope that the legislation helps organisations to see the benefit of a well managed diverse workforce.

Given that your day jobs are mostly in construction not equality I am going to write this blog for the layman in an attempt to give you a running start.

So here are my five things construction firms should know about the new equality duties.

1.       Whilst all the equality legislation is under one banner now (Equality Act 2010) there are parts of the legislation that affect everyone (More familiar as the old Sex discrimination act, Race relations act etc) and parts that only affect the public sector and its subcontractors these are known as the equalities duties. When the equality duties came in (around 2007) they only affected Race, gender and disability. The main change to the duties that comes in on the 5^th is the fact that the duties will now cover eight of the nine protected characteristics (things that by law we cannot legally discriminate against) these are Age, Disability, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion and belief, sex and sexual orientation*.

2.       It is the duty of the public sector to tell you as a subcontractor that you are required to comply with the equality duties. If they don’t make this clear you do not have to comply and they can be held to account for that.

3.       The purpose of the equality duties is to eliminate unlawful discrimination and harassment, and to actively promote equality. The main point of the equality duties is that you should be being proactive and this is what the public sector will now be looking for in your tender documents under E&D. Where traditionally you will have seen questions asking what you have done the duties will push public sector to ask you what you will do.

4.       What should you do? No one is expecting you to have a diverse and equal workforce by the end of the week, the aim is more to get you moving by showing this is an area that you are taking seriously.  Of course some of you will have very little budget – again don’t worry a lot of the initial work can be done with relatively small resources.  The two most important things currently that tenders will be looking for (please note this is open to change dependent upon the client) is that you are following their recognised processes. This means that you monitor your workforce and that you implement Equality impact assessments on your policies and procedures. Information regarding both of these areas is available on the web; we have links under resources on our website and have previously written a blog regarding equality impact assessment within construction. If you need further help feel free to send us Blog Q.

5.       Get your staff up to date with the changes, after all this isn’t just about playing lip service well managed equality and diversity improves profit and productivity – this is the message that you should be sending out to your staff from the top down. Make sure you can provide training that understands the concerns of your staff and takes them seriously; this can be a scary area for some and if these initial reservations are not dealt with the message will not be embedded.

We have put together a small survey to find out what solutions you need to meet the duties, if you enjoyed this blog please take a few minutes to fill it in so we can continue to help you meet your objectives.

Chrissi

* Marriage and civil partnership is the only protected characteristic not covered by the equality duties.