Summary
The Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulation protects against discrimination on the grounds of religion, religious belief or other philosophical belief in employment and vocational training. These include, for example, flexible working/leave and religious observance, dress codes and dietary needs.
What employers must do
- Encourage the development of faith support networks to promote better understanding of the religions and beliefs within their organisations / local communities.
- Review their policies on equal opportunities, recruitment and selection, and training and development, to ensure they explicitly refer to this aspect of equality (e.g. by suggesting that managers take account of major religious holidays when setting interview dates).
- Impact assessing and reviewing their policies to ensure compliance – particularly dress codes, annual leave policies and special leave and bereavement policies.
- Introducing monitoring of religion or belief in all policies where there might be a possibility of legal challenge.
- Ensure that information on religion or belief is included in staff attitude surveys.
Implications
The regulations set out a framework for eliminating discrimination in employment, or occupational inequalities, based on religion or belief.
Although it is not a requirement of the regulations in England and Wales, organisations have started to monitor staff in terms of religion or belief to measure progress in achieving equal treatment for employees, regardless of their belief system. This includes:
- job application and selection success rates
- the take up and outcomes of grievance and harassment procedures
- the content of equality training
- a question in anonymous employee attitude surveys
- information from exit interview
- language and images used in internal and external communication.