Employers failing to get to grips with regulations

Despite monitoring gender and ethnicity, employers are failing to get to grips with areas of potentially unlawful discrimination thrown up by regulations implemented in December 2003 on religious belief and sexual orientation.

An IRS survey of 75 organisations, together employing 278,577 people, showed that few of them currently monitor religion or belief. It also revealed that procedures for monitoring sexual orientation are virtually non-existent. Just three employers in the survey had attempted to collect data from their workforces on this area.

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In the majority of cases, HR was responsible for monitoring, while five organisations employed an equalities officer or manager. Most commonly, the data collected through monitoring was used as the basis for reports to the board or for public reports. But 37 organisations had used it to review their equal opportunities policies.  www.irsemploymentreview.com, 020 8686 914