Protection For Women Undergoing IVF

The Eurpoean Court of Justice has confirmed that dismissal or unfavourable treatment of women undergoing IVF amounts to sex discrimination. In a case referred from Austria (Mayr v Backerei und Konditorei Gerhard Flockner OHG ECJ C-506/06, 26/2/08), the EJC said that the Pregnant Workers Directive only had effect from the moment of pregnancy, which in a case of IVF was when the fertilised ova was implanted.

However, the court felt it appropriate to conclude that the Equal Treatment Directive precludes the dismissal of a woman where it is established that the dismissal is based on the fact she had undergone IVF treatment.

Currently ACM is dealing with a case where a member undergoing treatment is facing questions about her commitment to her job, directly arising from her need to attend a fertility clinic. This recent ruling is therefore both welcome and timely.

EHRC Publishes Single Equality Scheme

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has published its first single equality scheme.

The scheme lays out the practical steps the Commission will take to promote equality and human rights in everything it does. The document will be the starting point for its three-year scheme which will be developed during 2008/9. All public authorities have a duty to produce an equality scheme.

Because of the Commission’s unique remit, the scheme goes beyond the legal requirement to address gender, disability and race and also covers issues around age, sexual orientation, religion or belief and human rights.  The Commission has a special position among public authorities as these duties are identical to its own remit. The Commission is also responsible for ensuring other public bodies meet the legal requirements of the equality duties.

A copy of the scheme can be found on the EHRC website.

Sexism and the City

Today (Tuesday) the Fawcett Society launches a major new campaign, Sexism and the City, calling for tough action to stamp out sexism in UK workplaces.

Why? Because nearly 40 years on from the outlawing of discrimination against women in the workplace, sexism remains rife:

• Only 11% of FTSE 100 company directors are women
• 30,000 women lose their jobs every year in the UK simply for being pregnant
• Two thirds of low paid workers are women
• Women working full-time are paid on average 17% less than men
• 18% of sex discrimination compensation awards are for sexual harassment
• The first UK lapdance club opened in 1995. There are now over 300 lapdance clubs in the UK

For the first time the Fawcett Society is joining the dots between women’s experiences in the workplace and a wider culture in which women are subject to sexist stereotypes and are increasingly sexually objectified.

Sexist workplaces: Attempts to shoe-horn women in to workplaces designed by men for men have failed. The result? Motherhood carries a penalty and poverty has a female face. Fawcett is calling on the Government to extend the right to work flexibly to all so that flexible working is not seen as the “mummy track”, and ending the opt-out of the EU Work Time Directive in order to curb the destructive long working hours culture.

Sexist attitudes: All women are now subject to a damaging culture of sexual objectification, waved in by the normalization of the sex ‘industry’. Women in the workplace experience worrying levels of direct sexual harassment, and visiting a lapdance club has become an increasingly normal way for companies to entertain clients. Yet polling carried out by Ipsos MORI and published today shows:

• 60% of women would be very or fairly uncomfortable working for an organisation that allows its employees to use lapdancing venues for entertaining clients.
• 52% of men and 59% of women believe it is not acceptable for businesses to use lapdance clubs as venues for entertaining clients.

As a first step to challenging the objectification of women, Fawcett is calling for lapdance clubs to be licensed as Sex Encounter Establishments (as sex shops currently are) instead of the current Premises License (like ordinary pubs and clubs), enabling local authorities to place greater restrictions on the clubs.

TUC Response To Immigration Report

Commenting on the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee report on ‘The Economic Impacts of Immigration’, TUC General Secretary, Brendan Barber, said:

“The TUC has always said that on balance immigration has been good for the economy and good for society. Without the contribution of migrant workers important parts of public services and the private economy would collapse.

‘This does not mean that there have been no problems associated with recent patterns of migration, but the solution is to deal with these issues, rather than abuse migrant workers.

‘Where public services are under strain, then there should be more investment, given the extra tax revenue generated from migrant workers.

‘The Committee is absolutely right to endorse the TUC view that unscrupulous employers have used the availability of migrant workers to abuse employment standards such as the minimum wage. The Government should act on the Committee’s recommendation to crack down on these bad bosses and agencies who use migrant workers to undermine decent secure jobs.”

CEL Equality and Diversity Conference

The Centre for Excellence in Leadership (CEL) is holding its first Equality and Diversity Conference on 21 May 2008. The conference offers the opportunity to engage with the sector on equality and diversity matters; hear the findings of CEL’s equality and diversity research, soon to be published; participate in workshops with key sector agencies to capture and share good practice; and talk about and work through challenges and the strategies to address them.

More details can be found on the CEL website.

Male Apprentices Better Paid than Women

Female apprentices are still being left far behind their male counterparts according to a new TUC report.

The report Still More (Better Paid) Jobs for the Boys shows that while more apprenticeship places have opened up for women in general, this has not happened in better paid male-dominated sectors such as engineering and construction.

The TUC report shows that little has changed - and in some cases the situation has worsened - in the three years since the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) completed its report looking at this issue in detail.

The proportion of men and women entering into apprenticeships overall are fairly even - 54.2 per cent of people starting apprenticeships in 2006/07 were men, and 45.8 per cent were women - but apprenticeships are still strongly divided along gender lines. In 2006/07, the worst industry culprits were construction with only 1.3 per cent women apprentices, vehicle maintenance (1.4 per cent female apprentices) and engineering (2.5 per cent).

During the same period, 97.1 per cent of apprentices in childcare were female and 91.7 per cent of hairdressing apprenticeships were women, the two lowest paying sectors. This divide was identified by both the EOC and the Women and Work Commission, but this new TUC report shows that there has been virtually no change since 2002/03. In engineering the situation has actually worsened, with the proportion of women apprentices falling from 4.5 per cent to 2.5 per cent between 2002/03 and 2006/07.

TUC Deputy General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Apprenticeships are an excellent route into work and we want to see more and more employers offering high quality places.

“But this report shows there is still a huge gender divide in apprenticeships. Too many young women are being limited to apprenticeships in low-paid traditionally female occupations like childcare and hairdressing, and are unable to break into better paid male occupations like engineering.

“Low pay in apprenticeships happens much along gender lines. Women receive on average 26 per cent less pay than men so action needs to be taken now to tackle this divide once and for all. Government and, in particular, employers need to take this seriously and make equality a major priority.”

The TUC report also shows that big employers - often said to be better at tackling issues such as occupational segregation - are amongst the worst culprits. Of the large employers who contract directly with the Learning and Skills Council’s National Employer Service (NES), women only comprise around one fifth (20.1 per cent) of all apprentices taken on.

Of the ten most popular apprenticeships taken up by NES employers, six had less than 11 per cent female apprentices. Even more strikingly, four of the five most popular apprenticeships taken up via the NES have less than four per cent women - construction (1.2 per cent), vehicle maintenance (1.3 per cent), engineering (3.5 per cent) and electro-technical (1.5 per cent).

The TUC report suggests a six-point plan to tackle this growing inequality:

• The Government should set a national equality and diversity strategy to target particular groups, sectors and localities where gender divides exist.
• The Government should make more use of means such as procurement policies to promote equality and diversity in apprenticeships and could put targets in place for Sector Skills Councils (SSCs), linked to Government funding of SSCs.
• As women are more likely to be in low paid apprenticeships than men, increasing the £80 minimum pay rate for apprenticeships would benefit women most. The minimum apprentice wage should urgently be raised to £110 per week.
• Joint work between unions and employers on equality and diversity should be encouraged and supported by the Government.
• Adult apprenticeships should be expanded. Research shows older women are more likely to take up apprenticeships in non-traditional female roles, so expansion of the programme would help break down occupational segregation.
• The Government should fully explore how the public sector gender equality duty can ensure gender equality in apprenticeships.

To view the report in full please visit: http://www.tuc.org.uk/extras/genderreport.pdf

New Free ESOL Booklet

The Government has got together with unions and employers to promote the importance of English language skills through ESOL with a new publication. The publication is entitled “English Language at Work - work based English for speaker of other languages” and it is available now to download.

The booklet contains 14 valuable and informative case studies from different sectors and industries, and contacts, and resources. It is introduced by Further and Higher Education minister, Bill Rammell; TUC general Secretary, Brendan Barber; and CBI Director-General, Richard Lambert.

It is available here as a free download.

Opinion in Coleman Case Welcomed

ACM has welcomed the opnion of the Advocate General of the European Court of Justice on the Coleman Attridge case. Sharon Coleman had claimed under the Disability Discrimination Act that her employer had treated her less favourably than others because she had a disabled child.

The issue at stake was whether disability discrimination law protects people who, although not themselves disabled, face discrimination because of their association with a disabled person. The Employment Tribunal had asked the European Court for a decision on whether such discrimination is covered by European law. The Advocate General’s opinion is absolutely clear that it does, and also that this would extend to all areas covered by anti-discrimination law.

David Green, ACM Head of Employment Relations said, “This is an important decision which will be welcomed by many ACM members in a similar position to Sharon. Despite colleges having policies on promoting equality, we’ve seen members with caring responsibilities lose their jobs because of their college’s failure to make reasonable adjustments.”

The TUC was also supportive. General Secretary Brendan Barber said, “The Advocate General has given a welcome opinion in this important case. Workers with caring responsibilities should be protected from discrimination and harassment in the workplace.

‘Although most sensible employers now realise the benefits that come from being flexible and helping staff balance their lives, there are many bosses still living in the last century, who need to be persuaded to do much, much more to help their employees have less stressful lives and not to make life even more difficult for those already shouldering caring responsibilities.”

More information on the Advocate general’s decision can be found here.

DDA and Reasonable Adjustments

The importance of properly assessing whether an action would amount to a reasonable adjustment under the Disability Discrimination Act has been highlighted by a recent case.

In Environment Agency v Rowan, the agency successfully appealed that in refusing Ms. Rowan a trial period of working from home, it did not discriminate by failing to apply a reasonable adjustment. However, the Employment Appeals Tribunal did state that a trial period should normally be used as a way of assessing if a future adjustment was viable rather than being seen as an adjustment itself.

This ruling may help ACM negotiators press for a trial period in order to assess the suitability of a proposed adjustment where it looks like the employer is minded to refuse the proposal.

Indeed, in this particular case the EAT said, “It is prudent for employers to adopt a trial period in an appropriate case to see whether home-working for example is a reasonable adjustment. An employer who has failed to investigate the possibility of home-working by a trial period may find it difficult to establish that home-working was not a reasonable adjustment. We consider that a trial period is akin to a consultation, or the obtaining of medical and other specialist reports; these do not of themselves mitigate or prevent or shield the employee from anything.”

ACM Welcomes Flexible Working Call

ACM has welcomed news that the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) are to push for the right to request flexible working to be extended to all workers.

ACM Head of Employment Relations David Green said, “The current law on flexible working is weak. We see too many members refused flexible working for arguably spurious reasons; and so any proposal to strengthen this right is very welcome.”

The EHRC position is reported in the latest issue of People Management.

Cancelling Christmas

According to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, every year, a local authority or public body like a school or college falls prey to the accusation of “cancelling Christmas” and PC run amok. The resulting media furore, say the Commission, is now a regular ritual of the holiday season itself.

Indeed, a couple of weeks ago one broadcaster made a real splash about schools “banning” nativity plays for fear of offending people from other religions. Not surprisingly, outraged viewers contacted the station condemning political correctness while others laid the blame at different faiths.

In response to such reporting, the Commission has joined with high profile faith leaders to claim Christmas back. In a joint statement, senior figures from the Hindu, Sikh and Muslim communities have joined with the Commission to say: Let’s stop being silly about a Christian Christmas.

Trevor Phillips, Chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said last week,”A lot of these stories about Christmas are the usual silly season stuff. But I can’t help feeling there’s sometimes an underlying agenda to use this great holiday to fuel community tension. That’s why I asked leaders in different religious communities to join me in saying: It’s time to stop being daft about Christmas. It’s fine to celebrate and it’s fine for Christ to be the star of the show.”

Anil Bhanot, General Secretary, Hindu Council UK said, “Hindus celebrate Christmas too. It’s a great holiday for everyone living in Britain. We would like Christians to continue to carry Jesus’ message of love. Barring the faiths of others does not fit in with the Hindu religion.”

Dr Indarjit Singh, Director, Network of Sikh Organisations UK said, “Every year I am asked, ‘do I object to the celebration of Christmas?’ It’s an absurd question. As ever, my family and I will send out our Christmas cards to our Christian friends and others. In the spirit of Christmas, we in the Singh family will, as usual, force ourselves to have extra turkey, Christmas pudding and mince pies, the lot – all in the cause of inter-faith harmony. No one can say Sikhs don’t go the extra mile!”

Shayk Ibrahim Mogra, Chair of the Inter Faith Relations Committee, Muslim Council of Britain said, “To suggest celebrating Christmas and having decorations offends Muslims is absurd. Why should Christmas not be celebrated openly and wholeheartedly in our country when a vast majority of people are Christians? Why can’t we have more nativity scenes in Britain? It would be wonderful to show my children what Jesus means to Christians and to learn the different beliefs we all hold.”

Camapian Launched Against HIV Discrimination

To coincide with World AIDS Day 2007 tomorrow (Saturday) the TUC is launching a workplace leaflet and poster campaign about HIV, to combat the discrimination and stigma that accompanies infection.

Alongside the global pandemic, infections in the UK continue to rise with more than 70,000 people now HIV positive in Britain. The workplace is a key battleground against HIV as it is a condition suffered disproportionately by people of working age. And although discrimination on grounds of HIV infection is illegal under the Disability Discrimination Act - many people living with HIV face unfair treatment at work.

The TUC advice, written jointly with the National AIDS Trust, explains the main facts about HIV and how it is transmitted, as well as relevant employment law issues. It also points out the need for unions to guard against the risks of unfair discrimination against people living with HIV.

The leaflet proposes policies to support those with HIV at work that unions can negotiate with employers, and also points out the danger that ignorance about HIV can lead to homophobia and racism - as gay men and black Africans are the two groups in society where the highest rate of infection occurs.