Equality, Diversity, and Fair Treatment in UK Public Services

Desklib provides solved assignments and past papers to help students succeed.

Equality, Diversity and Fair Treatment
Page | 1

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
P3 Identify the range of legislation designed to implement equality, diversity and fair treatment
in public services.............................................................................................................................4
P4 Explain the importance of understanding unconscious bias, prejudice and discriminatory
behavior in the public services........................................................................................................7
M4 Investigate the role of advisory services in relation to equality, diversity and fair treatment in
public service employment..............................................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10
Page | 2

Introduction
Equality, diversity and fair treatment at the place of occupation plays an important in managing
and motivating the workforce for strengthening out the weaknesses of the organization. This task
is quite difficult for the organizations to cooperate with the changes for maximizing the potential
of the business as well as the employees. It is important to accommodate different groups of
people and recognized the diversity of the workforce and their culture in the organizations to
make them feel supporting and motivating. In this context, this essay includes the different range
of legislation which is mainly enacted to implement the equality legislation. Further, it also
explains the importance of discriminatory behavior about public services.
Page | 3

P3 Identify the range of legislation designed to implement equality, diversity
and fair treatment in public services.
The diversity in the United Kingdom consists of several legislations to assist and encourage
equality, diverse and practices of fair treatment in public services. There are several legislations
which are specially designed to directly identify the policies about the decision that directly
affect the public services. In this context, there are several legislation which is enacted to
determine and monitor the equality and diversity practices are explained below:
Equality and Diversity:
Equality Act, 2010 is enacted to provide legal protection to the people from the discriminatory
practices in the employment of public services, at the workplace or in society. The main
provisions of this act to provide the basic framework against the practices of discrimination,
harassment, service victimization, education, public services, transport, work, and associations. It
allows the victims to claim compensation against such unfair and misleading practices
(Goodfellow and McFarlane, 2018). This act also practices protects the harmful treatment with
the public or employees that genuinely affect their life because of such unfair practices. The
main aim of this act is to protect individuals from unlawful treatment and ensures that there is
fairness prevails in society.
Fair treatment legislation and regulations:
In the United Kingdom, the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 is the legislation
which prohibits employer's agents the discriminatory practices against the employees based on
age and now this regulation is overruled by the Equality Act, 2010. This regulation protects from
both Direct and indirect discrimination where the direct unfairness occurs when employees are
discriminated on the basis of age and indirect bias is the situation where the practices of the
employer result in disadvantageous for the particular group of people or at the employment while
providing public services.
Page | 4

Sex Discrimination Act 1975 is a Parliamentary act whose main aim is to protect the men and
women from unfairness on the basis of marital status or sex. This act mainly concerned with the
practices about the training, disposal of premises, harassment, employment, education, and
provision of goods and services.
Employment Equality (Sex Discrimination) Regulations 2005 is enacted to introduce the new
concept of indirect discrimination in relation to the matters of employment, vocational training,
and sexual harassment. It assists to eliminate the unfairness against the pregnant woman and
leave for maternity.
Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 is enacted for the application of the Race Relations
Act, 1976. It restricts the unlawful treatment against the persons on the basis of racial grounds.
Such grounds cover race, nationality, color, and nationality. This act is enacted to ban the racial
discrimination at public places. It considered the discriminatory grounds on the basis of race as
an offense.
Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003 is enacted to protect the public
against less favorable treatment to the public based on their religion or belief. It protects the
victims against the harassment activities in the society as well as the workplace.
Human Rights Act 1998 is passed to protect the old, young, poor or rich persons. Every person
gets their rights to achieve justice. This act is used by every citizen of the UK where it provides
the right to life, prohibit the unfair and inhuman treatment while providing public services or at
the workplace (Dupont, 2019). This act respects privacy and provides freedom of religion and
belief. It provides the right to education and property protection of the citizens.
Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003 prohibits the employees against
the unlawful practices against the employees or to the public at large on the basis of sexual
orientation. It covers the areas of direct, indirect, victimization and harassment.
Advisory Services:
In the United Kingdom, Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Services (ACAS) is the non
departmental body, its essential purpose to enhance and improve the working life by promoting
Page | 5

the practice of strong industrial relations. It provides advice and impartial services to the
employee and employers by considering all aspects of the employment law at the place of
occupations. Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) is the department of independent charity which
provides advice to the local people belongs to all age groups and backgrounds. Equality and
Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is important to enforce the Equality Act for reducing the
impact of inequality, protecting and promoting human rights. Its main purpose is to resolve the
issues for the violation of human rights in opposition to the agencies and commonwealth. It
assists in resolving the issues with the method of conciliation. Royal Association for Disability
and Rehabilitation (RADAR) is established to remove the barriers against the disabled people
by removing the restrictions economically and structurally. It assists in producing the statement
in relation to the particular issues by providing supporting services to the member organizations.
Trade Unions are a workers association which acts as a legal representative on behalf of the
employees unit in relation to the lawful matters and against any rights generate from the
agreement (Podsiadlowski, et. al., 2013). Liberty Human Rights mainly focus on the
protection of the individual and their freedom against the unreasonable detention for ensuring
personal safety. It protects the individual against unlawful detention.
Inspectors and advisory bodies, for instance, Independent Monitoring Board (IMB) for
prisons is established under the Prisons Act, 1952 for monitoring and supervise the welfare of
the workers in the United Kingdom in the prisons. It ensures that whether the workers are
properly treated and cared the prisoners, while they kept in prison, custody or detention.
Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is accountable for entertaining the
system of handling complaints and issues registered or made against the police officers in the
United Kingdom.
Page | 6

P4 Explain the importance of understanding unconscious bias, prejudice and
discriminatory behavior in the public services.
Unconscious bias, prejudice and discriminatory behaviors at the workplace introduce the
unintentional; discrimination which results in poor decision making for the organisations. It is
crucial to understand the abovementioned concepts to assess the discriminatory practices at the
workplace (Bedi, et. al., 2014). Unconscious bias, prejudice, and discriminatory behavior
contributed to leading the discriminatory behavior at the place of occupation. Lack of
understanding this concept is created problems for the customers, staff as well as for the public.
This concept is important for increasing awareness while making decisions in the interest of
society and businesses. It assists the organisation in gaining higher awareness of discriminatory
behaviors to lead the organisation towards success. It also assists in providing ethical
considerations to the company managers in their decisions and it eliminates unfair employment
practices which assist in prohibiting discrimination at the place of occupation or employment of
public services (Okoro & Washington, 2012). It is important that the respective authorities
provide appropriate training and educate their staff to understand this concept. In public services,
these concepts play a vital role because it assists in prevailing equality in the country. It not only
enhances the country image but also makes the people confident and motivates about their rights
against such biased behavior. Eliminate discrimination practices is one of the important and
essential aims of business organizations as well as the government of the country.
The importance of knowing and getting acquainted with the unconscious bias, prejudice and
discrimination is important from the managerial perspective(Onlinelibrary, 2019). It is important
to know and understand as this shall give an evidence of the continuing discrimination at
workplace. This knowledge shall contribute in the development of a stronger control over the
organisation and ensure that the employer is abiding by the laws and legislation while
recruitment. This knowledge shall further be an aid in achieving gender equality at workplace
(Rubery,2013). Once the managers get acquainted about the bias, prejudice and discrimination,
Page | 7

they shall be able to formulate effectiveness in achieving merit principles by adherence to
simplistic and rigid application.
Hence having knowledge of continuing bias and discrimination is affirmative from perception
and of managers as they are the one who shall implement strategies and policies consistent with
the legislative framework.
Page | 8

M4 Investigate the role of advisory services in relation to equality, diversity
and fair treatment in public service employment.
In United Kingdom there are immense services which provides advise and consultancy for
achieving equality and fair treatment in public service and related sectors. The equality service
and advisory assists individuals in relation to equality and human rights in employment across
England, Wales and Scotland. All the guidelines and provided advice is consistent with the
Equality Act 2010 which has consolidated a lot of equality laws though these laws were in
functions in past. The equality law applies in every aspect in public service employment. It shall
apply irrespective of the organisation size, sector of work, recruitment procedure that is through
interview or forms and so on. There has been guides issued by the Human Rights Commission in
respect of abiding by the law of equality and principles while hiring in public employment
sector.
The role of advisory service shall be in respect of various matters like the responsibility of the
employer for the employees in matter of equal treatment. It also plays a great role in advising
people when they complaint that they have been discriminated at their employment place. One
such example of the advisory service is the Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service
(ACAS) which is a public body of United Kingdom government (Andrews and Van de Walle,
2013). The role of ACAS is to guide the employers to achieve fair treatment in matters of
employment and provide assistance regarding the mandatory abiding of the provisions of the
Equality Act 2010.
In terms of public employment, diversity is equally important to be achieved as equality as
diversity is also an aspect covered under the government rules and laws enacted for employment.
Hence the role of advisory services can be seen in promoting good relations and practices in
favor of different groups of minorities. It also plays a significant role in assisting those who have
experienced discrimination by way of delivering workshops for diversity at workplace and
employment. Further the advisory services also access the needs of the community in order to
promote cohesion in community. The role of the services is not only to make people and
Page | 9

organisations aware of the importance of equality and diversity but also to raise this issue among
schools, colleges and other bodies.
The role of ACAS can also be seen in terms of the Code of Practice which is implemented on the
procedure for disciplinary and grievance. A failure to follow these procedures shall not form a
ground for legal proceeding but the employment tribunal shall take these procedures into
consideration while interpreting laws and giving judgment in cases. Thus, the role of advisory
services is also seen in the judicial procedure though in a form of
guidelines(Rubery,2013).Along with this the role of advisory service like ACAS can be seen in
providing of training regarding discipline and grievances which in turn provides delegates to
manage the prescribed procedure of grievances at workplace. Hence the role of advisory service
can be seen of potential importance in providing for the need of equality, fair treatment and also
achieving diversity at workplace but it shall be consistent with the provisions of the enacted
legislation (Equality Act 2010) in United Kingdom.
Page | 10

Conclusion
At the end of this essay, it concludes that employment concerning the public services enjoy the
merits of the diversity by employing the employees belongs to the diverse range. This assists the
organization of public services to promote the diversity in the workforce and it is essential to
manage it. Mainly, public sectors are designed to carry out the services for the public. This essay
provides the opportunity to the learners to learn about the different legislation prevail in the
United Kingdom and to understand the importance of prejudice, unconscious bias and
discriminatory practices in the services related to the public. With the help of the advisory
services, it helps out in providing reasonable solutions to the victims of such discriminatory
behavior.
Page | 11

References
 Bedi, P., Lakra, P., & Gupta, E., 2014. Workforce Diversity Management: Biggest
Challenge or Opportunity for 21st Century Organizations. Journal of Business and
Management, 16(4), pp. 102-107.
 Dupont, P.L., 2019. The right to education for disabled persons and religious minorities:
UK report. ETHOS WP, 3.
 Goodfellow, M. and McFarlane, L., 2018. Race’and Racism in the UK. New Thinking for
the British Economy, pp.150-59.
 Okoro, E., & Washington, M., 2012. Workforce Diversity and Organizational
Communication: Analysis of Human Capital Performance and Productivity. Journal of
Diversity Management (Online), 7(1), pp. 57.
 Podsiadlowski, A., Gröschke, D., Kogler, M., Springer, C., & Van Der Zee, K., 2013.
Managing a Culturally Diverse Workforce: Diversity Perspectives in
Organizations. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 37(2), pp. 159-175.
 Andrews, R. and Van de Walle, S., 2013. New public management and citizens'
perceptions of local service efficiency, responsiveness, equity and effectiveness. Public
Management Review, 15(5), pp.762-783.
 Onlinelibrary, 2019. Managerial Perspectives on Implicit Bias, Affirmative Action, and
Merit [Online]. www.onlinelibrary.wiley.com. Available at:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/puar.12955. (Accessed on 19th July
2019).
 Rubery, J., 2013. Public sector adjustment and the threat to gender equality (pp. 43-83).
Edward Elgar and ILO.
Page | 12