LGBT+ workers: good practice criteria for employers

Introduction: why do we need this advice?

As LGBT people become much more widely accepted in society following fifteen years in which legal inequality has been (for the most part) replaced by equal rights confirmed in the Equality Act 2010 and the Equal Marriage (Same sex couples) Act 2013, many employers now seek to establish their reputation by affirming their commitment to becoming “LGBT-
friendly”.  This is warmly welcomed by LGBT communities and by trade unions, however research continues to show that LGBT workers continue to face prejudice and discrimination at work, usually in the form of bullying and harassment, where the most comprehensive study ever carried out investigated UK workplaces and found that lesbian, gay and bisexual workers were two and a half times more likely to be harassed because of their (actual or perceived) sexuality (Hoel, Lewis and Einarsdóttir, The ups and downs of LGBs’ workplace experience, Manchester Business School 2014). The position of trans people is no better.

Since this survey was carried out at a time when the employers concerned were asserting that they are “LGBT-friendly”, it is apparent that rhetoric and reality are not always the same thing. For that reason, the TUC is encouraging unions to press employers to adopt a more rigorous approach and oversight of their practices to help ensure that excellent equality policies are carried through into excellent practice throughout the workplace. Relationship with other employer programmes It may be necessary to explain why the employer should not simply enter (or continue with) the Stonewall “top 100” workplace equality index. The response is that the WEI is not sufficiently comprehensive to satisfy us that enough is being done by the employer. For example, the WEI does not include trans workers and will not do so until 2018. There is additionally in the Stonewall criteria no credit awarded for negotiating policies with trade unions.