Acas publishes new advice to help employers brush up on equality and diversity
Workplace expert, Acas, has launched a new series of equality guides to help employers identify, tackle and prevent discrimination in the workplace.
Acas said its helpline has dealt with nearly 50,000 calls on discrimination and diversity issues in the workplace over the last year. To help employers and managers get to grips with the law on equality, Acas has published three new free guides offering practical advice in the workplace.
Acas head of equality, Steve Williams, said: “We have published these new free guides to help employers understand the basics around equality and discrimination as falling on the wrong side of the law can result in a costly employment tribunal.
“Research shows that employers with a diverse workforce can reap many business benefits as they can tap into the knowledge and skills of staff from a wide range of backgrounds.
“Our new guidance suite covers the different types of discrimination, situations where discrimination is lawful as well as practical steps on how to prevent discrimination and dealing with it if it happens.”
The new Acas guides cover the nine areas in law that are known as ‘protected characteristics’:
Age
Sex (gender)
Race
Religion or belief
Disability
Sexual orientation
Gender reassignment
Marriage and civil partnership
Pregnancy and maternity.
Business Minister Nick Boles said: “Employers benefit greatly from building diverse workforces. The new equality and discrimination guides from Acas are a positive step in helping employers to understand the law and in preventing hardworking people facing workplace discrimination.”
