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Policy Statement
It is the aim of Pointer Limited to be an equal opportunities
employer.
The Company commits itself to promote and develop equal
opportunities and will keep under review its policies, procedures
and practices to ensure that they accord with the principles of
equal opportunities and are consistently applied.
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Pointer Limited recognises that discrimination is
unacceptable and it is in its own best interest, as well as the
interest of its employees, to utilise the skills of the total
workforce.
The aim of the equal opportunities policy is to ensure that no
present or future employee or job applicant receives less
favourable treatment on the ground of race, colour, creed,
religion, ethnic or national origin, nationality, sex, marital
status, disability, sexuality or social status, or is disadvantaged
by any conditions or requirements which cannot be shown to be
necessary.
In the promotion of the policy, Pointer Limited will endeavour
to meet in full the statutory requirements of the Race Relations
Act, the Sex Discrimination Act, the Codes of Practice relating to
these and the measures relating to the employment of people with
disabilities.
Whilst it is expected that all staff of the Company will accept
personal responsibility for practical application of the policy,
lead responsibility for its implementation will rest with the Chief
Executive and fellow Directors. To ensure that it is consistently
applied, co-ordinating responsibility is assigned to the company's
Human Resource Manager who will have responsibility to the Chief
Executive for monitoring the operation of the policy.
The Human Resource Department will have responsibility to the
Chief Executive for monitoring the operation of the policy for both
employees and job applicants and for initiating period departmental
audits.
RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION
The intention of the recruitment procedure is to ensure the most
appropriate response to any vacancy in the Company. Pointer Limited
wishes to ensure the highest quality of candidates and will
advertise vacancies within the organisation. Use will be made of
job centres, career service, the media and appropriate external
vacancy advertising outlets.
The selection process is of crucial importance and must
therefore be carried out according to objective, job-related
criteria. The effectiveness of the policy will be determined to a
great extent by this aspect of the employment procedure. Pointer
Limited will endeavour through appropriate training to ensure the
employees making selection decisions will not discriminate in
making these decisions.
TRAINING AND PROMOTION
All steps will be taken to ensure equal access to opportunities
for training and promotion. Pointer Limited will endeavour to
provide appropriate training to enable staff to perform their jobs
efficiently and pursue career development opportunities.
Training and guidance for implementation will be given to
Managers and Supervisors of the Company to increase their awareness
of their role in the implementation of the policy; and training and
guidance in appropriate techniques will be provided for staff
involved in recruitment and selection.
Equal opportunities information will be incorporated in the
company's induction and management training courses.
Where possible and practicable, advantage will be taken of the
provisions of the Acts for positive action.
DISCIPLINE AND GRIEVANCE
Direct discrimination and instances of sexual, racial or other
harassment will be treated as disciplinary offenses and will be
dealt with under the disciplinary procedure.
An employee who has in good faith taken action under the Race
Relations Act or Sex Discrimination Act, or complains about racial,
sexual or other abuse and/or discrimination, shall not for that
reason receive less favourable treatment than any other employee,
for example by being subjected to disciplinary action.
Particular care will be taken to deal effectively with all
complaints of discrimination, victimisation or harassment.
All employees have the right to seek redress for their
grievances and Pointer Limited will ensure that this right is made
known.
Complaints by staff will normally be processed through the
agreed grievance procedure. It is recognised, however, that
employees often find it difficult to approach their immediate
manager in cases involving discrimination or harassment. The first
point of contact in incidents of their nature may therefore
alternatively be the Human Resource Manager. If the employee
remains aggrieved, then the formal procedure should be
followed.
CULTURAL AND RELIGIOUS NEEDS
Pointer Limited will endeavour to take measures to ensure that
existing policies and procedures are modified to accommodate any
particular cultural and religious needs of staff which may conflict
with existing work requirements, wherever such measures are
compatible with the safe and efficient running of the Company and
its service.
MONITORING
Pointer Limited will create and maintain employment records in
order to monitor the progress of this policy. This will
involve:
The collection and classification of information regarding the
ethnic origin, sex and disability of all current employees and job
applicants;
Pointer Limited will examine by ethnic origin, sex and
disability the distribution of employees and the success rate of
applicants over a period of time;
The results of such monitoring will be used to assess the
effectiveness of the implementation of the equal opportunities
policy. If necessary, adjustments will be made to the policy to
ensure that equal opportunities are afforded to all applicants and
staff.
If evidence is provided by employees of others which suggest
that the policy is ineffective this will be investigated and
appropriate action taken.
GUIDELINES
A detailed Equal Opportunities Guidelines has been drawn up,
copies of which are available to all employees from the company's
Human Resource Manager. The Guidelines gives further information
and guidelines on implementing the Equal Opportunities Policy.
REVIEW OF POLICY
The Policy will be subject to regular review by the appropriate
Company Staff.