Equal Opportunities Policy in the UK - Essay Example

Running head: EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES POLICY IN UK. EOP in UK Place December 24, 2005 The article Equal Opportunities Policy in UK starts off with a brief description of the policy in force, then a statement of policy and ideas of various writers based on studies and surveys conducted. Finally the references. Equal Opportunities Policy in UK Commission for Racial Equality stated that the first step to develop and provide equality of opportunity, a policy needs to be adopted to encompass various aspects of advertising, selection, recruitment, promotion and maintenance of personnel records. In order to implement the policy in totality the employers will have to train the employees to adapt the policy as per their circumstances and requirements (2005). According to Commission for Racial Equality, The statement of policy should read as follows: This company/organisation/firm/practice/etc, aims to be an equal opportunity employer, and has a policy for this purpose. The policy covers all aspects of employment, from vacancy advertising, selection recruitment and training to conditions of service and reasons for termination of employment. In order to ensure the effective operation of the policy the company/ organisation/firm/practice/etc maintains records of employees' and applicants' racial origins, gender and disability. Ongoing monitoring and regular analysis of such records provide the basis for appropriate action to eliminate unlawful direct and indirect discrimination and promote equality of opportunity. The company's/organisation's/firm's/practice/etc long term aim is that the composition of our workforce should reflect that of the community. Timetabled targets will be set for groups in the community that are identified as being underrepresented in the workforce. Where necessary, special steps, as permitted by the relevant Acts of Parliament, will be taken to help disadvantaged and/or underrepresented groups to compete for jobs on a genuine basis of equality. The company's/ organisation's/firm's/practice/etc Equal Opportunity Employment Policy (EOEP), and the measures to implement it, have been devised on the basis of advice from the relevant bodies as well as in consultation with appropriate union and/or employee representatives. The director of personnel/managing director/senior partner/etc, is responsible for the effective operation of the company's/ organisation's/firm's/practice/etc EOEP. A copy of the EOEP is available from the personnel department/managing director/senior partner/etc (2005). Marshall stated that "The equal opportunities culture in mid-1990's has been one that has tended to have a narrow focus, and to fuse social justice issues with performance standards and improvement, with a greater emphasis on the latter." According to Chmiel the UK legislation does not extend to gay or lesbian workers and it provides only a framework to be adhered to thus the companies may adhere to and comply to the legislation loosely. "The basic premise of equal opportunities is that talent and ability are spread equally through all groups, including men and women, all able bodied and disabled people, and all ethnic groupings." As per the survey conducted by Honey, Meager and Williams in 1993 only one out of 20 organisations approached the legal quota of disabled employees. Discrimination was reported by 22 percent gay and lesbians when applying for jobs, 24 percent in promotions and about 50 percent due to their sexuality (1999). Chmiel further stated that women recruited and promoted under the programme Opportunity 2000 carried a 'Stigma of Incompetence', experienced lower self confidence and backlash from other members in the organisation (1999). Survey results published by Cara Aitchison stated that it was difficult to identify discrimination in recruitment, selection and promotion situations since many reasons could be effectively used as smoke screens, but discrimination occurs in day to day life such as indifferent attitudes of males to females in senior positions (2003). According to Sylvia Walby "Contemporary gender relations in the UK cannot be understood without recognising the impact of the European Union, a gendered supra state." The changes in European Union had its impact on the gender relations in the UK, specifically in employment (1997). Salisbury and Riddell stated that the European Commission's Equal Opportunities unit was established way back in 1976. The equality policy found its way into its member states and the original form was actually equality of pay, which gradually changed to gender based equality in the late 1990's. The European Commission (EC) was instrumental in constituting the Equal Opportunities Policy (EOP) funded by European Social Fund (ESF/3). The regulation provided for specific provision aimed at tackling unemployment and the inequalities between men and women. The commission was of the opinion that equal opportunities pathway must address those women who are under-represented, under-qualified and without vocational qualifications or those women returning to the labour market after a brief absence. This was supposed to be reflected in the UK policy by 1996, but research studies showed a contradicting picture and the trend was towards marginalisation of training for women rather than increased provision as evidenced from the papers submitted by the UK government to EC (1999). According to Cara Aitchison, research studies depicted 86.6 percent stating that their organisation adopted Equal Opportunity policy, but only 55.7 percent of them felt the effectiveness of the policy. Though equal numbers of male and female members were employed as required by the policy, the "Reasons given for the thinking that their organisation's policy was ineffective were most likely to be related to organisational culture: lack of value and respect for policy within the organisation, lack of visibility of the policy, and the minimal implementation of the policy." Most of the respondents felt that organisational culture was colluding with discriminatory practices (2003). Dawtrey, Holland, Hammer and Sheldon (1998) stated that the Government's commitment to Equal Opportunities Policy is less than whole hearted due to the usage of sexist language in the wording of the act. It is totally masculine by stating that pupils, parents, teachers and governors were invariably males. The process of implementation of the policy has clearly shown that the language that was used was not a legal anachronism but reflects political and administrative relations to a considerable degree. The language used is deceptively neutral, While it appears to embrace all women within its objectives, it does so only by overlooking the social realities of class and ethnic division. It is significant, in this context, that nearly all the research on equal opportunities treats girls as homogenous category, failing to acknowledge the variety of their other social characteristics (Dawtrey et al. 1998). Dawtrey et al further stated "The number of women appointed to the National Curriculum Council's working groups has been disgracefully small comprising of three women to every thirteen men (1998). Henwood, Miller, Senker and Wyatt state that liberal equal opportunities policies aimed to increase the number of women undertaking IT training may fail since the cultural nature of both gender and technology are not recognised (2001). On the other hand Salisbury and Riddell noted that "men find it difficult to break into employment areas which have been predominantly female." Thus they are affected by long term unemployment due to decline of industries they were traditionally employed in and the newer sectors are increasingly employing part time employees i.e., a women dominated employment area (1999). References Commission for Racial Equality 2005, Sample Employment Policy, Retrieved on December 24th, 2005 from: http://www.cre.gov.uk/gdpract/eop_sample.html#statement Nik Chmiel. Introduction to Work and Organizational Psychology. (1999). ISBN: 0631206760. Publisher Blackwell Publishing (US). Cara Aitchison. Gender and Leisure: Social and Cultural Perspectives. (2003). ISBN: 0415261562. Publisher Routledge (UK) Sylvia Walby. Gender Transformations. (1997). ISBN: 0415120810. Publisher Routledge (UK) Jane Salisbury, Sheila Riddell. Gender, Policy and Educational Change: Shifting Agendas in the UK and Europe. (1999). ISBN: 0415194342. Publisher Routledge (UK) Liz Dawtrey, Jannet Holland and Merril Hammer with Sue Sheldon. Equality and Inequality in Education Policy. (1998). ISBN: 1853592498. Publisher Multilingual Matters (UK) Catherine Marshall. Feminist Critical Policy Analysis: A Perspective from Primary and Secondary Schooling. (1997). ISBN: 075070635X. Publisher: Routledge (UK) Flis Henwood, Nod Miller, Peter Senker, Sally Wyatt. Technology and In/Equality: Questioning the Information Society. (2001). ISBN: 0415230233. Publisher Routledge (UK). Read More