Equal Opportunities and Diversity Policy
Venture Life is committed to encouraging equality, diversity and inclusion, providing equal opportunities in the employment of its workforce and to avoiding unlawful discrimination in employment and against all other parties that we work with on a day-to-day basis.
This policy is intended to assist the Company to put this commitment into practice. Compliance with this policy should also ensure that employees do not commit unlawful acts of discrimination.
Striving to ensure that the work environment is free of harassment and bullying and that everyone is treated with dignity and respect is an important aspect of ensuring equal opportunities in employment. The Company has a separate dignity at work policy, which deals with these issues.
Venture Life encourages equality, diversity and inclusion in the workplace and recognise the value that individual differences bring to the business. We respect and value differences and will work together with staff to identify and address any inequalities and barriers faced by people.
The Law
It is unlawful to discriminate directly or indirectly in recruitment or employment because of age, disability, sex, gender reassignment, pregnancy, maternity, race (which includes colour, nationality and ethnic or national origins), sexual orientation, religion, or belief, or because someone is married or in a civil partnership. These are known as “protected characteristics”.
Discrimination after employment may also be unlawful, e.g., refusing to give a reference for a reason related to one of the protected characteristics.
Employees must not discriminate against or harass any other person with whom they interact whilst working for the Company.
Types of Unlawful Discrimination
Direct discrimination is where a person is treated less favourably than another because of a protected characteristic. An example of direct discrimination would be refusing to employ a woman because she is pregnant.
Indirect discrimination is where a provision, criterion or practice is applied that is discriminatory in relation to individuals who have a relevant protected characteristic (although it does not explicitly include pregnancy and maternity, which is covered by direct sex discrimination) such that it would be to the detriment of people who share that protected characteristic compared with people who do not, and it cannot be shown to be a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim.
Harassment is where there is unwanted conduct, related to one of the protected characteristics (other than marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity) that has the purpose or effect of violating a person’s dignity; or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating, or offensive environment. It does not matter whether the person responsible for the conduct intended this effect.
Associative discrimination is where an individual is directly discriminated against or harassed for association with another individual who has a protected characteristic (although it does not cover harassment because of marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity).
Perceptive discrimination is where an individual is directly discriminated against or harassed based on a perception that they have a particular protected characteristic when they do not, in fact, have that protected characteristic (other than marriage and civil partnership, and pregnancy and maternity).
Victimisation occurs where an employee is subjected to a detriment, such as being denied a training opportunity or a promotion because they made or supported a complaint or raised a grievance under the Equality Act 2010, or because they are suspected of doing so. However, an employee is not protected from victimisation if they acted maliciously or made or supported an untrue complaint. There is no longer a need for a complainant to compare their treatment with someone who has not made or supported a complaint under the Equality Act 2010.
Failure to make reasonable adjustments is where a physical feature or a provision, criterion or practice puts a disabled person at a substantial disadvantage compared with someone who does not have that protected characteristic and the employer has failed to make reasonable adjustments to enable the disabled person to overcome the disadvantage.
Equal Opportunities in Employment
Venture Life commits to ensuring there is no unlawful discrimination in all aspects of employment including recruitment, promotion, and opportunities for training, pay and benefits, discipline and selection for redundancy.
Venture Life actively encourages diversity, so person and job specifications will be limited to those requirements that are necessary for the effective performance of the job. Candidates for employment or promotion will be assessed objectively against the requirements for the job, taking account of any reasonable adjustments that may be required for candidates with a disability. Disability and personal or home commitments will not form the basis of employment decisions except where necessary.
Venture Life will consider any possible indirectly discriminatory effect of its standard working practices, including the number of hours to be worked, the times at which these are to be worked and the place at which work is to be done, when considering requests for variations to these standard working practices and will refuse such requests only if the Company considers it has good reasons, unrelated to any protected characteristic, for doing so. The Company will comply with its obligations in relation to statutory requests for contract variations. The Company will also make reasonable adjustments to its standard working practices to overcome barriers caused by disability.
Dignity at Work
Venture Life has a separate policy concerning issues of bullying/harassment on any grounds, and how complaints of this type will be dealt with.
Please refer to the Dignity at Work policy for more details.
Customers/Clients, Suppliers, and the General Public
The Company will not discriminate unlawfully against customers using or seeking to use goods, facilities or services provided by the Company.
Employees should report any bullying or harassment by customers, suppliers, visitors, or others to their manager who will take appropriate action.
Your Responsibilities
Every employee is required to assist the Company to meet its commitment to provide equal opportunities in employment and avoid unlawful discrimination.
Employees can be held personally liable as well as, or instead of, the Company for any act of unlawful discrimination. Employees who commit serious acts of harassment may be guilty of a criminal offence.
Acts of discrimination, harassment, bullying or victimisation against employees or customers are disciplinary offences and will be dealt with under the Company’s disciplinary procedure. Discrimination, harassment, bullying or victimisation may constitute gross misconduct and could lead to dismissal without notice.
Grievances
If you consider that you may have been unlawfully discriminated against, you may use the Company’s grievance procedure to make a complaint. If your complaint involves bullying or harassment, the grievance procedure is modified as set out in the dignity at work policy.
The Company will take any complaint seriously and will seek to resolve any grievance that it upholds. You will not be penalised for raising a grievance, even if your grievance is not upheld, unless your complaint is both untrue and made in bad faith.
Last updated: April 2024