Employment Law Update:

A WELCOME RETURN TO SCOTTISH PRIDE

By Natalia Milne

Navigator Employment Law

Pride events and celebrations across Scotland this summer are likely to be well attended after a hiatus in the past couple of years during the Covid pandemic.

Increasingly UK businesses recognise the commercial benefits of inclusivity. In May this year, the UK’s Minister for Equalities, Mike Freer, welcomed the launch of OutBritain, an accreditation scheme for

LGBT+ owned organisations in the UK. During a speech at the launch event, he highlighted research suggesting that ‘open, inclusive and diverse societies are better for business and economic growth’ and how LGBT+ inclusive employers can attract and retain talent, which in turn helps to build customer loyalty and brand strength, enhancing financial performance. “In recent times, it has become clear that increasing numbers of employees and customers no longer wish to associate with organisations that do not share their values,” he said, pointing out that advances made by businesses in driving LGBT+ inclusion in their workplace have in turn been an engine for driving wider change.

Trans equality and legal issues impacting on HR Professionals handling recruitment

Trans equality has regularly featured in news as the Scottish Government consults on draft legislation to change the system through which transgender people can gain legal recognition.

The Equality Act 2010 (EqA 2010) already prohibits unlawful discrimination based on gender reassignment. It protects not only those holding a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC), as the legislation also covers someone who is “proposing to undergo, is undergoing or has undergone a process (or part of a process) for the purpose of reassigning the person’s sex by changing physiological or other attributes of sex.

A trans person (with or without a gender recognition certificate) is not obliged to inform an employer or prospective employer of their gender change, although some may volunteer this information to ensure their gender history is clearly established to be protected information. Nor is a job candidate required to tell prospective employers they have changed gender.

Of course this may come out during a recruitment process, as it requires documentation checks to confirm information such as a candidate’s employment experience, qualifications, criminal record history (where relevant) and right to work.

Great care is needed whenever HR professionals handle sensitive information about transgender status. While not all trans people have a GRC, the current legislation makes it a strict liability criminal offence for a person who acquires in an official capacity (such as through a recruitment process) information about someone’s application for a GRC, or information which identifies someone with a GRC as transgender, to disclose that sensitive information to any other person except in certain prescribed circumstances (such as disclosure for the purpose of preventing or investigating crime).

HR professionals ought to be familiar with the Government Equalities Office’s Guidance for

Employers on ‘The recruitment and

retention of transgender staff’. It says ‘Ideally, trans candidates should have access to a nominated person in HR who is knowledgeable and available to deal with the documentation sensitively’.

This will involve retaining only what is needed, ensuring that the data is held securely and that there is no informal sharing of this information as this could be unlawful. Employers and HR professionals should also be mindful that gender reassignment and any information appertaining to an individual’s gender history is special category data under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, so it can only be processed for certain specified reasons.

Training or refresher training to ensure HR professionals are supported handling such issues, and also create a supportive and welcoming workplace for all LGBT+ staff is recommended. It is an investment with the potential to bring great rewards in terms of building an inclusive workforce and a loyal team.

“In recent times, it has become clear that increasing numbers of employees and customers no longer wish to associate with organisations that do not share their values”

ESG: ESG:

IT’S THE NEW KID ON THE BLOCK!

ESG is being heralded as the future for environmental, social and governance across all work practices. But is it the way forward for more ethical people policies? Andy Moore spoke with one Scottish based resourcing business, which is actively pursuing rigorous ESG principles, and he discovers how it embodies ESG in its organisation.

Mention ESG to many HR practitioners and you’ll be met with “widening eyes” in what is considered a revolution in greener, humanitarian and better governed work practices.

ESG stands for Environmental, Social and Governance. It can be best described as a vehicle for enshrining and delivering a broad range of greener, more diverse and socially responsible policies – those that organisations have strived to embody over many years. The environmental aspect considers how organisations may safeguard the environment and how its corporate policies address climate change and emissions for example. In turn, the social criteria examines how employers manage relationships with employees, suppliers, customers and communities and ultimately how we create a safe and progressive environment for our children and the future generations to come. The governance element of ESG deals with aspects such as leadership, audits and internal controls. An organisation that embodies ESG is the rapidly fast-growing resourcing business, PTR Ltd (Premier Technical Resources Limited) based on the outskirts of Edinburgh and operating in countries across the globe, including: Bulgaria, Poland, The Netherlands and Germany. Set up by Directors Rob Aitchison and Martin Aisthorpe in 2019, PTR originally outsourced technical and engineering specialists for the oil and gas sector, and is now specialising in the renewables industry too. PTR was established as a project management organisation, providing technical people in engineering, surveys, quality, health and safety and environmental services. “ESG is becoming increasingly important both to us and our many client organisations. We have seen a huge increase in the level of interest in ESG and we are investing heavily in this ethical future by operating in green industries that have a high level of compliance,” Rob explains. “From a Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging (DI&B) perspective, we ensure that regardless of people’s background, gender, sexual orientation, disability, or any other often discriminated group, they have exactly the same opportunities as everyone else. ESG is very much about ensuring businesses are greener, not meaner but with better governance.” Despite its relatively recent launch, importantly, PTR has 25 years’ experience in the energy sector working with business professionals and HR practitioners. It is fully ISO-certified in environmental, H&S (Health & Safety) and quality – and has embarked on a strategy to engage with HR professionals and organisations that seek a resourcer with a strong ESG ethos and accreditation. ESG is becoming increasingly important to employers, both at management and HR level - a value that PTR spearheads throughout its tender process for organisations. “Historically, CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) was more about how HR conduct’s its social codes of practice – but some organisations may see this as a tick box exercise. In contrast, ESG delivers CSR with a complete governance process,” Rob continues. “Within our tendering process, we are not only ISO certified – but we also have to demonstrate we have the appropriate anti-corruption procedures in place across area’s such as anti-bribery and slavery.”

For PTR, a huge aspect of Environmental, Social and Governance is being sustainable across its resourcing practices, especially for shorter and longer-term procurement contracts. Moreover, it can adapt to accommodate clients’ everchanging people and business strategies. The limited company has set out its long-term business plan to cater for all aspects of ESG as society and employers strive to become more sustainable. For HR, an environmental ethos may include measuring the employee carbon footprint, switching to Net Zero pensions, introducing electric vehicles into the business and changing to renewable energy. Alongside environmental, the people aspects of ESG can be equally enshrined in modern HR policies, for example in mental health, race relations and disability and discrimination laws. The organisation has been undergoing a consultancy process to achieve certification with its ESG procedures being comprehensively assessed, including a Gap Analysis and it will have to recertify annually. “In June, we were audited for ISO45003, the first global standard giving practical guidance on managing psychological health in the workplace,” Rob adds. “We believe it is essential to achieve the certification and compliance, both for own people in the workplace – but also for the many clients we are engaging with.” A main principle behind ESG is treating people with respect and dignity, for example enabling overseas workers to take compassionate leave in their home country. PTR enabled a contracted employee working in Germany to take compassionate leave in Bulgaria recently, which was managed within just three hours by our in-house team, and then backfilled the role for temporary cover for a demanding seven-day week contract. PTR works with a wide range of leading global organisations in the delivery of offshore and onshore projects and services for the evolving energy industry, delivering a strong ESG focus. A number of them are signatories to the UN Global Compact with aims to become Net Zero by 2050, and PTR firmly believe that by matching the same level of commitment that their clients make to ESG, is not only good for business, but it shows that their ethics and values are completely aligned to those of their clients too.

So, what is the future for ESG over the coming years?

Rob sums up: “The way ahead will be to make ESG policies and procedures ever more transparent in work practices. PTR will meet our clients’ demands by ensuring everything we do is ethical, open and fair in our supply chain, and by creating a compliant environment for us to operate in. In the near future, the only way businesses will survive is through sustainable and ethical protocols and how we treat our employees.” Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) • A vehicle for enshrining and delivering environmental, diversity and social responsibility policies • Increasingly important to employers at management and HR level • ESG delivers corporate social responsibility with a complete governance process • Environmental commitments may include measuring the employee carbon footprint and switching to Net

Zero pensions • A main principle behind ESG is treating people with respect and dignity