At first glance, it appears obvious. It is creating policy and making decisions consistent with existing legal understanding of what the Equality Act says and requires of your organisation.
So, possibly, it is easier to identify what I do not mean by this.
I do not mean Diversity, Equality (Equity), and Inclusion (“DEI”) or EDI or E and D as it used to be known. These “organizational frameworks which seek to promote the fair treatment and full participation of all people”. They usually involve training in mainstream skills like gaps analysis, customer service, listening skills and more disputed ones like unconscious bias training and allyship which I am not qualified or seeking to provide.
Done well, (as for example using the suggestions set out in Simon Fanshawe’s excellent book, “The Power of Difference”), it can make companies more effective. Too often, it is not.
They might some elements of Equality Act compliance. However, as currently practiced, rarely do so accurately.
As seen from this blog, recent high profile cases has seen the activities of DEI consultants and champions leading to unlawful discrimination and harassment. This is usually through training, policies or initiatives which over-simplify or promote one protected class to the detriment of another.
As barrister, Naomi Cunningham, of @legalfeminist states here, “employers should think seriously even about what may seem to them to be innocuous exhortations to “allyship,” like encouraging staff to wear a rainbow lanyard, or give their pronouns at the start of meetings or in their email sign-off, etc. The problem, in a nutshell, with pronouns and similar observances is that they are a public profession of belief.”
It is not just confined to the recent sex and gender conflict. In Equality law, we have previous conflicts of rights between
- Sexual orientation and Religion and Belief in cases like Ladele v Islington Council or Lee v Ashers Bakery
- Disability and parents in cases such as First Bus v Pooley
- Race and Religion and Belief in cases such as R (on the application of E) v JFS
- Religion and Belief and families in R (on the application of Z) v Hackney London Borough Council
and many more.
Rather, I see Equality Act compliance as akin to other statutory duties such as General Data Protection Regulation ( “GDPR”) Health and Safety at Work (“HSE”) .
It provides a framework setting out the parameters in which those bound by the Equality Act
- Recruit, employ and treat staff and former staff
- Provide services to the public
- Undertake public functions
- Organise and run larger membership groups
- Let and manage rented property
- Provide reasonable adjustments for disabled people
and so on, in a way which avoids unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation.
Like GDPR and HSE, it is complex, and there are many exceptions to general principles.
However, I have spent many years as a specialist Equality lawyer translating it to a wide variety of groups from adults with learning disabilities, English Gypsies to letting agents and health visitors. The skill is to make the training very bespoke and practically focused on setting out how the law applies to a particular audience. So as much listening as talking.
If interested in what I offer, do get in touch.