186

Equal Opportunities What is the CSP Doing about Equal Opportunities? In July 1990 the Society adopted a formal statement on equal opportunities and it has now set up a group of members and staff to review the statement and forward action on specific problems. Key topics will include recruitment to the profession and employment as a physiotherapist.

The members of this Equal Opportunities Working Group include Patricia Auty, Barry Barton, Pam Mulholland and Helen Shaffner, together with several of the CSP staff. We hope that readers will get in touch with them or any officer at the CSP headquarters if they have issues they would like to raise.

This first article discusses equal opportunities in the general employment context; future papers will deal with specific aspects such as access to the profession, equal opportunities aspects of practice, and Whitley Council initiatives.

Discrimination in Employment The aim of equal opportunities is to create conditions where people of similar ability can compete on an equal footing by recognising and removing discrimination. It does not give everyone the same employment opportunities regardless of skills and abilities.

Discrimination can be found in nearly all aspects of employment, such as pay, recruitment, training and promotion, grading structures, hours of work and pension rights. Some of the groups which are more widely recognised as potentially experiencing discrimination include women, part-time workers, people with disabilities, certain age groups, and ethnic and religious groups. Other factors such as class, marital status, sexual orientation, trade union membership and political beliefs may also lead to discrimination.

Discrimination in employment occurs when misconception and stereotyping lead to employees’ skills, abilities, potential and experience being outweighed by unjustified prejudice. Discrimination can be direct or indirect and intentional or unintentional. Direct discrimination occurs when people are openly treated less favourably than others.

Indirect discrimination is more common, but so complex and subtle that it is less easy to recognise. This happens where there is apparently equal treatment of all employees, in that a requirement for a job applies to everyone. If there is no justifiable reason for using such a criterion to select applicants for a position, and it results in excluding the majority of members of particular groups, then indirect discrimination is taking place. Examples of this would be insisting on specific working times which are not necessary but just custom and practice; or specifying the need to speak and read English well for a manual job like cleaning.

Both theselypes of discrimination are illegal with respect to race and sex under the Sex Discrimination Act (1975) and the Race Relation Act (1976) in Britain, and under

the Fair Employment Act (1989) in Northern Ireland. For many other groups there is little statutory protection and no form of redress.

Positive Action Positive action is a sophisticated response to the complex and broadly-based nature of disadvantage and discrimination. It aims to develop and implement an effective range of measures which tackle the causes as well as the symptoms of discrimination. Inherent in this approach is the recognition that not all smployees start from the same level of advantages. It therefore aims to counteract some disadvantages in order to achieve a similar level of opportunity for all employees. This usually takes the form of specialist training courses, or special routes into particular jobs which are designed specifically to help employees from disadvantaged or under- represented groups.

Changes in working practices, job design, the provision of workplace nurseries or child care vouchers and retainer schemes are examples of positive action towards equal opportunities.

Positive Discrimination Positive discrimination is much more specific and involves short-term discrimination against normally more privileged groups in pursuit of equality of outcome in the long term. It is illegal to practice it in Britain except in a very tiny minority of instances, because generally even the suspicion of its practice can cause conflict and dissatis- faction among those groups which have lost out and those which have gained.

Equal Opportunities in the NHS Last year the Secretary of State committed the NHS to the Opportunity 2000 initiative to improve the position of women, and there was a particular focus on the access of women to top jobs in the NHS. However, many of these initiatives appeared to be focused in ways that made them less valuable to physiotherapists and other professions allied to medicine (PAMs). The Secretary of State is now reported to be planning new initiatives covering racial equality in the NHS.

The King’s Fund Equal Opportunities Task Force stated in its final report (1991) that ‘glaring’ racial inequalities existed within the NHS and among its main recommendations called for NHS management to initiate an early performance objective ‘to analyse the ethnic composition of their workforce by staff group, location and grade so that racial inequalities can be identified and appropriate remedial action programmes developed’.

The move to trust status and attempts to move away from national pay and grading structures is a threat to the achievement of equal pay for women. This view is supported by the Industrial Relations Services report (1992) which concludes that increasing use by employers of flexible and market-based pay systems (including the tendency towards decentralisation of pay) has tended to act to the detriment of women’s pay in relation to that

Physlotherapy, March 1993, vol79, no3

187

of men, and that payment structures continued to be strongly gender-segregated, reflecting the occupational segregation of the labour market.

Acknowledgment Members of the Equal Opportunities Working Group wish to thank Penny Bromley for preparing this article.

Conclusion References Institute of Management Services (1989). The Under-utilisation of Women in the Labour Market, IMS Report No 172, Brighton.

2. IRS. London.

The pressure to fnOve towards equality of opWrtuni~

employees, the professions and trade unions to develop within the NHS is increasing and the need for both NHS

Industrial Relations Sewices (1992). and Gender in Britain: . . a more progressive approach to equal opportunities is

becoming more pressing. The King’s Fund Equal Opportunities Task Force (1991). Final Report, King’s Fund, London.

BRIEFING PAPER Industrial Action This Briefing Paper has been issued to stewards and to managers. It sets out the current legal position for the Society and for members in respect of members considering Industrial action. It is not a comprehensive guide to the legal requirements and it Is important that members contact the CSP industrial Relations Department before they become involved in industrial action of any klnd.

A number of instances have arisen recently where CSP members have been considering taking part in industrial action, in some cases organised by:other trade unions. Where this has been considered there has been a problem in that the Society centrally has not been informed of such action. This is highly dangerous both to the individuals concerned and the Society itself as outlined below.

This type of action should be distinguished from non- industrial action taken within members’ own time, ie during lunch hours, such as protest marches and leafleting. Members must ensure that where such non-industrial action is taken, usual arrangements are made to provide cover during lunch hours for physiotherapy departments.

The law has recently been amended and greatly tightened up with regard to union members taking industrial action. It is therefore essential that any member considering taking part in industrial action (even if it is being organised by another trade union) contacts the CSP Industrial Relations Department f h t .

Unions must ballot before any type of industrial action. Certain information must be included on the ballot papers and questions asked must be phrased in a particular way. All ballot papers have to include a given phrase which makes it clear that any member taking part in industrial action following the ballot may be in breach of their contract of employment.

There are also very strict rules governing the conduct of ballots, such as: .Steps to be taken to ensure that all members receive ballot papers and have ample opportunity to cast their votes. .Strict rules on counting of votes and security to ensure that both completed and uncompleted ballot papers cannot be tampered with.

0 Provisions for ensuring independent scrutiny of ballots.

0 Ballot papers must specify the person(s) whom the union intends to have authority to call action in the event of a vote in favour. @There are now clear instructions on steps to be taken by a union to avoid liability for any unofficial action taken by its members. OUnions are obliged to hold separate ballots at each location when several workplaces are being called upon to strike. Separate workplaces with the same employer are allowed to be joined together only where the most complex requirements have been met.

These are just a very small sample of the very detailed and complicated requirements to be met to ensure that any ballots andsubsequent industrial action meet all the statutory requirements. Any trade union which organises industrial action without satisfying the requirements of the various Acts: or does not take sufficient steps to repudiate any industrial action taken illegally by its members, will lose immunity from legal action by an employer or customerlsupplier of any employer who suffers or may suffer damage as a consequence of the trade union’s unlawful inducement of workers to break or interfere with the performance of contracts.

If legal action is taken against the trade union it could result in: .A court order requiring the union to end the unlawful inducement of its members taking part in action. .The trade union having to pay damages for the effects of its unlawful inducement. .If such a court order is not obeyed the trade union could be declared in contempt of court and could face heavy fines or other penalties. OAny member of the trade union may be able to take legal action against the union if it has allowed the unlawful application of union funds or property for these purposes.

Members should also bear in mind the fact that they would be liable to disciplinary action (including dismissal) by employers or registration authorities for taking part in industrial action which has not been properly conducted.

This note is deislgned to help by setting out the legal position. it does not represent any change of policy by the Society.

Physlotherapy, March 1993, vol79, no 3