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Equal opportunities and diversity

It has always been the MRC's policy to afford equal treatment to all its employees and applicants for employment. This is recorded in the following statement:

"The Medical Research Council is an equal opportunities employer and it is the MRC's policy to ensure that no applicant for employment in the MRC, and no employee of the MRC, receives less favourable treatment than another on grounds of sex, marital status, colour, race, creed, ethnic or national origin, or is disadvantaged by requirements or conditions which cannot be shown to be justifiable irrespective of the colour, race, nationality, ethic or national origins, sex or marital status of the person to whom it is applied. Similar policies are applied to the employment of disabled persons and to discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation."

It is the objective of this policy that all individuals shall have equal opportunities for employment and advancement on the basis of their ability, qualifications or fitness for the work. Accordingly the MRC accepts a commitment to ensure that there is no discrimination on the above grounds in recruitment, selection, deployment, training and assessment for promotion or in the application of terms of employment to its employees.

The MRC is looking particularly hard at its practices in relation to the following:

Women at work

The MRC is determined to ensure that its female employees are treated fairly and given appropriate support to deal with non-work issues, which may make it difficult for them to pursue their jobs and careers. Furthermore, we have a range of working environments within the MRC and issues facing women working in laboratories may well be different to those working outside them.

To assist us in understanding the complex nature of considerations facing women at work and to learn about other organisation efforts in this, the MRC is a member of Opportunity Now – the Business-in-the-Community Campaign designed to improve the quantity and quality of women’s participation in the workforce.

Ethnic groups

The Council is determined to ensure that ethnic minority groups suffer no disadvantage during recruitment and selection or during the course of their employment. In line with the MRC Equal Opportunities and current legislation, the MRC will not tolerate racial discrimination and/or harassment by, or of, any of its employees in the workplace.

Disabled staff

Disablement in the workplace can take many different forms. The 1995 Disability Discrimination Act makes discrimination based upon disability illegal except where there is a substantial reason relating to the disability. It also places a duty on the employer to make reasonable adjustments to the workplace to enable individual disabled employees or candidates to help overcome the effect of the disability.

The Council’s policy statement on disabled employees states that:

The Council is committed to ensuring that the best candidate for the job is selected based upon ability to do the job. As part of this commitment, those responsible for recruitment must ensure reasonable adjustments are made wherever possible, so that disadvantages experienced by a disabled candidate on the basis of their disability can be overcome.
Disabled staff will be provided with the same opportunities for training, retraining and promotions as other employees of the Council and. where necessary reasonable adjustments will be made wherever possible to ensure this.
Council is committed to retraining staff who become disabled whilst in the Council’s employment and, wherever possible arrangements are made for retraining and making reasonable adjustments.

In addition the MRC also has equal opportunities policies on:

Recruitment and selection

Employment Opportunities within the MRC are very diverse. Recruitment is to a very broad range of jobs and the way in which the MRC recruits people, either from outside the organisation or by internal transfers, is of vital importance to the promotion of Equal Opportunities. This is because it is the way in which all potential employees and existing staff can compete openly and fairly for jobs. It also allows managers to review the full field of potential in a systematic and fair way, and make a decision based on objective selection criteria that reflect the requirements of the job.

MRC managers responsible for making new appointments are required to have attended suitable training courses on staff recruitment and selection and be familiar with best practice in this area.

Flexible working

The MRC has a number of opportunities for flexible working arrangements to assist in the balance of work and domestic commitments, and these are embedded in the equal opportunites policy. The balance of work and home life can lead to a diversity of working arrangements.

Family responsibilities

Everybody working for the MRC will have non-work interests, considerations and responsibilities. These will vary from person to person and will change, sometimes quite significantly, for people during their working lives.

The Council understands that it is not always an easy matter to draw a dividing line between people work and home lives. Responsibilities and pressure s outside work will affect the whole person, and as a good employer, the MRC tries to help its employees to manage these circumstances.

Although every employee is different, certain groups will tend to experience common responsibilities outside work. The demands of parenthood, for instance, tend to make heavier demands on women, but this must not be an assumption.

The key point is that the MRC wants all its employees to have an equal chance of contributing and, in a world where social structures and lives generally are changing in fast and diverse ways, solutions may need to be tailored to individual circumstances.

A range of facilities exist to support employees manage their family responsibilities, and to provide opportunities for flexible working arrangements to assist in the balance of work and domestic commitments.

Harrassment

Harassment is unwanted, inappropriate and unsolicited conduct which others find intimidating, embarrassing, humiliating or offensive. Bullying is a form of harassment, which may involve persistent, offensive, abusive, intimidating, malicious behaviour. Harassment or bullying is equally unacceptable whether it is directed as colleagues (regardless of Band or position), visitors or members of the public.

Harassment may relate to race, creed, disability, nationality, religion, sex, or sexual orientation or any other personal characteristic or circumstance.

The MRC is an equal opportunities employer and is committed to creating a non-discriminatory and fair working environment for all employees and attached workers. MRC will not tolerate harassment for any reason and MRC is committed to taking action to stop harassing behaviour as soon as it is identified so that professional working relationships can be maintained.

Harassment is potentially an act of serious misconduct. In very serious cases harassment may be considered an act of gross misconduct resulting in summary dismissal.

Training

The MRC is committed to the practice and promotion of equal opportunity and diversity in the workplace.

Accordingly, the Council accepts a commitment to the equality of access to training events and opportunities to develop new skills. To this end, via its Training and Development Group (TDG), it makes available a range of training options to ensure the needs of all MRC employees are met. Training is one important means of preparing employees to undertake existing and future work, and provides opportunities for employees to develop their skills and abilities to enhance their career potential. Training is therefore a vital tool in implementing equal opportunities policy a through access to training those who may be otherwise disadvantaged can be given opportunities to compete on an equal footing.