Our commitment

We are committed to promoting and creating equitable treatment and a workplace culture in which diversity and inclusion are valued and everyone that interacts with Hartley Law, including clients, employees and suppliers are treated fairly and with dignity and respect. It is also fundamental to ensure all potential clients have access to services.

We have a zero-tolerance approach to discrimination in any form.

You will receive equal treatment regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marital or civil partner status, pregnancy or maternity, race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation, other circumstances such as being a carer and socio-economic status or any other status protected by law.

Our aim

We aim to encourage and support diversity, equity and inclusion and actively promote a culture that values differences and eliminates discrimination in everything we do. It applies to all aspects of doing business with us and employment with us, including recruitment, pay, flexible working and promotion.

We genuinely believe that having a diverse workforce at Hartley Law benefits our clients across all service areas; it makes us innovative and promotes diversity of thought.

This policy applies to all employees, officers, consultants, contractors, volunteers, interns/work experience students, casual workers and agency workers.

We will also not tolerate discriminatory behaviour from suppliers or clients towards our staff and such behaviour may cause us to terminate our contract with you.

Karenjit Dhaliwal, Chief Executive Officer is responsible for this policy and will review it annually.

This policy does not form part of any contract of employment or other contract to provide services, and we may amend it at any time.

We collect, report and may publish data on the diversity of our workforce.

Discrimination

Employees, clients and suppliers of Hartley Law must not unlawfully discriminate against or harass others, including current and former staff, job applicants, clients, potential clients suppliers and visitors. This applies in the workplace, outside the workplace (when dealing with clients, suppliers or other work-related contacts), and on work-related trips or events including social events whether directly or indirectly and including, without limitation on social media platforms.

Forms of Discrimination

The following forms of discrimination are prohibited under this policy and are unlawful:

• Direct discrimination;
• Indirect discrimination: for example, requiring a job to be done full-time rather than part-time would adversely affect women because they generally have greater childcare commitments than men. Such a requirement would be discriminatory unless it can be justified;
• Harassment;
• Victimisation; and
• Disability discrimination: includes direct and indirect discrimination, any unjustified less favourable treatment because of the effects of a disability, and failure to make reasonable adjustments to alleviate disadvantages caused by a disability.

Recruitment and selection

Recruitment, promotion, and other selection exercises such as redundancy selection or selection of suppliers will be conducted on the basis of merit, against objective criteria that avoid discrimination. When recruiting or promoting, we aim to take steps to improve the diversity of our workforce and provide equality of opportunity. Our recruitment procedures will be reviewed regularly to ensure that individuals are objectively assessed on the basis of their relevant merits and abilities.

Specific experience requirements advertised on a role do not intend to preclude applications from candidates who may have more or less experience. We only intend to indicate a guideline as to the necessary skills for the role as described.

If you require any reasonable adjustments to be made at any stage of the recruitment process, please let us know.

Disabilities

If you are disabled or become disabled, we encourage you to tell us about your condition so that we can consider what reasonable adjustments or support may be appropriate. We do not pass on costs of making reasonable adjustments.

Our offices are wheelchair friendly.

Breaches of this policy

We take a strict approach to breaches of this policy, which will be dealt with in accordance with our disciplinary procedure. Serious breaches of this policy may result in dismissal.

If you believe that you have suffered harassment, bullying or discrimination, or witnessed it happening to someone else in the workplace, you can raise the matter with Karenjit Dhaliwal by email karen@hartleylaw.co.uk or call 01276 536410 and follow our complaints procedure. Complaints will be treated in confidence and investigated as appropriate.

There must be no victimisation or retaliation against staff who complain about or report discrimination.

We encourage the reporting of all types of potential discrimination, as this assists us in ensuring that diversity, equity and inclusion principles are followed to in the workplace.