EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY
Policy Statement
Cotman Housing Association aims to be fair in its provision of housing and employment opportunities. In particular it shall not unlawfully discriminate, for example, on the basis of gender, race, nationality, colour, religion or belief, disability, gender reassignment, sexual orientation or age.
The Association shall monitor the racial composition of housing applicants and of new tenants with a view to eliminating any under-representation of racial minorities in either category.
In its recruitment procedures the Association shall take reasonable steps to ensure that people from racial minorities or disabled people are not unfairly excluded from the selection process. Similarly, no job shall be reserved for a person of a particular sex unless there are clear and legally-permitted grounds for so doing. The same principle shall apply in the Association's consideration of employees for redeployment, redundancy, training or promotion.
The Association shall not tolerate the harassment of any individual or minority group, either by its employees, Board/Committee members or residents, or by contractors, consultants or suppliers used by the Association.
All contractors and consultants employed by the Association shall be required to certify that they have adequate policies and procedures in place to prevent discrimination or harassment within their organisations.
All suppliers used by the Association shall be expected to act within the spirit of this equal opportunities policy statement, and where Officers have reasonable cause to suspect this is not the case the supplier will no longer be used.
In ensuring that the above statement is adhered to, the Association will have regard to its legal obligations and responsibilities under the Race Relations Act (1976), the Sex Discrimination Act (1975), the Disability Discrimination Act (1996), the Human Rights Act (1998) and all other relevant legislation and statutory codes of practice.
The Equality and Diversity Statement is reviewed annually and, at the same time, the Association’s performance in adhering to its policy in respect of opportunities in housing, employment and Board of Management composition shall be assessed.