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| Promoting Equality & Diversity within the workplace |
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Following initial discussions with the Equality Authority
around establishment of an Inter-Site Equality & Diversity Working
Group, the inaugural meeting was held on 21 November 2002. Membership
of this Working Group is representative of the four sites and has also
been opened up to organisations and individuals outside of the Equal at
Work Project.
The Terms of Reference of this Working Group is: “To support, co-ordinate
and advise on the practical application of the equality & diversity
objectives as identified by the four sites”.
A Menu of what the Working Group can achieve over its lifetime has been
devised and this covers issues such as:
- equality legislation training,
- equality & diversity awareness raising (both
ground specific and integrated packages),
- proofing templates,
- impact assessment guidelines,
- equality reviews, and
- equality policies for the workplace.
The menu is designed to facilitate people getting
involved in areas that most interest them rather than having to be involved
in all aspects.
Over the past 14 months, the Working Group has been
focusing on equality legislation training, equality and diversity awareness
in the workplace and equality reviews. Arising from this, the Working
Group has developed an equality and diversity awareness training module,
‘Strengthening your Business’, which is designed to raise
awareness levels among staff of equality and diversity issues in the workplace.
The module also makes the business case for encouraging and promoting
diversity in the workplace. As well as being available for download (see
below), this tool is also available in hard copy and on CD.
:
This awareness raising tool is complimented by the equality training tool
developed by the Dublin City Public Sector Site (see Action Sites of Equal
at Work). This tool, entitled ‘Equality in the Workplace’,
is a training module for entry-level staff in public sector organisations
in the application of the Irish equality legislation. While specifically
developed with public sector entry-level staff in mind, this tool is designed
to be flexible and, as such, adaptable to the training needs of the private
sector and community & voluntary sector around equality legislation.
This tool is also available below for download.
(Note for Alastair: In above para, person should be able to click on ‘Action
Sites of Equal at Work’ which is in brackets and go to that page)
Two partner organisations, Exchange House Travellers Service and Dublin
Port Company, are currently finalising their respective equality reviews.
Upon their completion, a comparative analysis report, being carried out
by Breda McNally of Training & Evaluation Services Ltd., will be published.
The publication of this report will be followed by a seminar, organised
by the Equality Authority, on the equality review process. It is expected
that this report will be published in Autumn 2004, with the seminar to
take place shortly afterwards.
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