DATASHARP INDEPENDENT SOLUTIONS
EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES POLICY

 Policy Statement

The company operates an Equal Opportunities Policy. We have a long-standing commitment to the principle of equal opportunity in employment. Accordingly, we are opposed to any form of less or more favourable treatment being accorded to employees or job applicants on the basis of a person’s gender, marital status, religion, race, colour, national or ethnic origins, whether disabled or otherwise, responsibility for dependants, and age (up to 65).

There have been a number of significant developments in the field of equal opportunities. Legislation and Codes of Practice have been introduced to deal with racial disadvantages, sex discrimination and improving employment opportunities for the disabled. The Company recognises its legal and social responsibilities and its policy is to follow procedures to ensure that realistic equal opportunities are being practiced that are consistent with the relevant legislation and Codes of Practice. These are regularly reviewed.

Employees at all levels share responsibility for the effectiveness of the Equal Opportunities Policy. While the main responsibility rests with Managers and employees in supervisory positions, individual employees also have responsibilities. Eliminating discrimination depends as much on the behaviour of each employee as on management. To ensure that employees are aware of the Codes of Practice and legislation about equal opportunity, information is provided below:

Objective of Code of Practice Policy

A Policy Statement, outlining the position of the Company in respect of Equal Opportunities, is issued above. The Code of Practice describes the procedure to be followed within the Company to ensure that the policy is complied with and that equality of opportunity is offered to employees and prospective employees.

An Equal Opportunities Policy is an integral part of fair and effective management. It ensures that employees and the Company act within the law, and helps managers to make decisions about people based on job-related factors only.

Recruitment, Selection and Promotion

All applicants who apply for jobs with us are treated fairly and are considered solely on their ability to do the job.

All vacancies are advertised on the internally. Most vacancies are also advertised externally, through recruitment agencies and/or advertisements. All employees are given equality of opportunity within the company’s service and will be encouraged to progress within the organisation. All employees have equal access to training and development opportunities.

Education

The company is committed to a programme of action to make this policy fully effective, by education of all employees about equal opportunities.

Discrimination

Direct Discrimination – Direct discrimination in the Equal Opportunity context consists of treating a person less favourably than others are or would be treated in the same or similar circumstances, on the basis of that individual’s colour, disability, ethnic origin, gender, nationality, marital status, religion, race.

Taking recruitment as an example, direct discrimination against women would occur if the Company used an advertisement referring to “he” and “him” all the way through.

To establish a claim of direct discrimination at a tribunal, it is necessary for the claimant to establish both that his or her treatment, in similar circumstances, was less favourable than to another group, and that the grounds for the treatment were based on gender, marital status, ethnic origin, religion or disability, and that he or she suffered a detriment as a result.

Indirect Discrimination – This consists of applying a requirement or a condition which, although applied equally to all groups, is such that a considerably smaller proportion of a particular group can comply with it, and the requirements cannot be shown to be justified on other grounds.

In a tribunal case, it is necessary to satisfy all of the following criteria, to prove indirect discrimination has taken place:

• The condition or requirement is applied equally to the particular groups in question.
• It is such that the proportion of persons of the disadvantaged group who can comply with it is considerably smaller than the proportion of people not of that group who can comply with it.
• It is to the detriment of the people in the disadvantaged group that they cannot comply with it.
• The condition or requirement cannot be shown by the discriminator to be justifiable.

Indirect discrimination can equally apply to an individual or a group. Indirect discrimination is not dependent on whether the discrimination was deliberate or unintended.