The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) has published new guidance on religion and belief to help prevent discrimination at work and to "help ensure businesses are following the law when it comes to managing staff that have a particular religion, belief or those that don't hold any beliefs." The guidance offers advice to employers where discrimination is most likely to occur, namely recruitment, requests for annual leave, dress codes, and training and development opportunities. According to the guidance:-

  • Recruitment is a key area where employers should ensure that they avoid discrimination, particularly when advertising for the role they are trying to fill. The job advert should be published widely and it is advised not to mention religion in the posting.
  • Requests for annual leave during religious festivals or for religious reasons should be considered carefully and sympathetically. There should also be an understanding that employee performance may be affected during fasting.
  • Employers should take a flexible approach towards dress codes where possible.
  • Finally, opportunities for promotions should remain equal; it would be discriminatory if an employer discouraged an employee from taking a promotion because of their religion. There should also be an understanding around training and development in order to gain a promotion, it should be organised so that an employee with religious commitments does not miss out.

In other news...

1. Just 48 hours before the new GDPR EU legislation came into force, the UK Data Protection Act 2018 finally received Royal Assent on 23 May 2018. The UK has become only the eighth EU member state to pass legislation which will bring GDPR into domestic law. However, the UK Act is not limited to GDPR provisions but also covers national security issues and transposes the EU Law Enforcement Directive. The legislation allows the regulator far more investigatory powers, including company inspections without a warrant, a 24-hour deadline for enforcement notices, and the threat of criminal action against people found to be blocking investigations. The legislation requires increased transparency and accountability from organisations and stronger rules to protect against theft and loss of data with serious sanctions and fines for those that deliberately or negligently misuse data.

2. The Government Equalities Office (GEO) has published guidance on dress codes and sex discrimination following a recommendation from the Parliamentary Women Equalities Select Committee and the Petitions Committee. Although the guidance advises on how employers can ensure that dress codes are not discriminatory, the GEO have been criticised for not threatening harsher punishments on organisations with discriminatory rules. The guidance finds it advisable to avoid gender-specific prescriptive requirements and states that dress policies for men and women are not required to be identical but that the standards imposed should be equivalent. The guidance states that transgender employees should be allowed to follow an organisational dress code in a way that they feel matches their gender identities, and if there is a staff uniform, transgender employees should be supplied with an option that suits them. Finally, the guidance states that employers should be flexible and not set dress codes that prohibit religious symbols that do not interfere with an employee's work.

3 .HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has released figures that show more than 200,000 workers did not receive the National Minimum Wage in 2017/2018 and have now secured back pay. HMRC's latest figures were published as the government launched an annual advertising campaign designed to encourage workers to take action if they are not receiving the National Living Wage. The review identified 233 employers who had deprived staff of a full wage, with Argos emerging as the worst offender having underpaid 12,176 people close to £1.5 million.

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