Legal & General is committed to ensuring that any negative social impacts from its operations are reduced as far as is reasonably practicable. The chosen contractor or supplier is expected to demonstrate that it maintains effective policies and procedures for ensuring equality and diversity in compliance with current legislation.
The practical application of our standards is detailed as follows:
Policy
It is anticipated that the supplier will have a current equality and diversity policy, which is signed and dated by a senior official of that organisation. A copy should be provided including the date of last revision if not included on the policy.
We believe that a good policy statement will be a strategic document and include a commitment to create and sustain a non-discriminatory work environment based on equal treatment for the supplier’s entire workforce.
Legal & General is committed to a practice of non-discrimination of any kind against any person.
Compliance with Legislation
We require our suppliers to comply with all current relevant anti-discriminatory legislation. Examples of such legislation include Race Relations; Sex Discrimination; Equal Pay; Disability Discrimination; Age Discrimination (October 2006).
We also expect our suppliers to be able to demonstrate that they have active Equality and Diversity Policies, which ensure compliance with legislation, and relevant Codes of Practice published by the Equal Opportunities Commission, the Commission for Racial Equality, and Department for Work and Pensions.
Many forms of discrimination are unlawful as a result of legislation. More recently, in accordance with the Employment Equality Regulations 2003, an applicant or employee is protected from inequitable treatment within the scope of this policy, not only on the grounds of his/her sexual orientation and religion or belief, but is additionally protected from discrimination resulting from how another person perceives his/her sexual orientation and religion or belief.
Similarly, it is unlawful for an applicant or employee to be treated less favourably on account of his/her association with people of a certain sexual orientation, religion or belief.
Implementation
Legal & General, with the support of Amicus, is committed to the principle of equality and diversity in all its employment practices and procedures.
We expect that a key supplier will be able to demonstrate active promotion of equality and diversity through the application of recruitment and employment policies that will ensure individuals are treated fairly, equitably and consistently and that selection decisions are based on relevant knowledge and skills, aptitudes and abilities.
Examples of implementation could include copies of rules, policies and procedures as detailed in an Employee Handbook as well as details of consequences of a breach of these rules.
