Duty to promote equality

Employers, public authorities and workplace organizations are obliged to work actively, in a targeted, planned manner to promote equality and prevent discrimination. The duty to promote equality includes among other things recruitment, promotion, working conditions and protection from harassment.

Good equality measures must

• have concrete goals
• be anchored in management
• be a part of practical procedures
• be followed up and evaluated

Who is responsible?

Employers

Employers are responsible for ensuring that all employees have equal opportunities and rights. Workers are also responsible for avoiding discrimination and this includes among other things:

Taking equality into account in all personnel work
Abiding by the anti-discrimination legislation
Working actively for and reporting on equality in the enterprise through the positive duty to report on and promote equality in the anti-discrimination legislation
Adapting for those with disabilities in accordance with the Anti-Discrimination and Accessibility Act and the Working Environment Act, §4-1 fourth paragraph.
Ensuring appropriate procedures for handling incidents of discrimination and harassment in the workplace
 

Employee representatives

Employee representatives shall give advice and help to members who experience unreasonable differential treatment. In addition, unions must work actively to promote equality in discussion and negotiations. This involves the employee representatives taking responsibility for ensuring that agreements they enter into on behalf of members do not discriminate against anybody. Employee representatives are also responsible for promoting equality and preventing discrimination in the recruitment processes in which they are involved.

Workplace organizations have a duty to work actively for equality and against discrimination within their areas of responsibility, including training, case processing, negotiations and contract work.

Safety representative

The safety representative shall take care of employees’ interests in cases related to the working environment. This also includes discrimination.

The Working Environment Act, §2-3 stipulates that employees who learn of discrimination or harassment in the workplace should inform their closest manager or safety representative. It is therefore important that dealing with discrimination and harassment is a part of the company’s HSE plan. The safety representative must have training and expertise in how to deal with discrimination cases.

Colleagues

All employees have a legal obligation to inform the employer or security representative of harassment or discrimination. Support from colleagues is also important in order to have the capacity to take up potential discrimination cases with employers or those otherwise responsible.

The victim of discrimination

The party who feels discriminated against or harassed should raise the issue with management, the safety representative or the trade union. In such cases, the management, in accordance with the Working Environment Act, §2-5, is not permitted to retaliate. That is, reporting discrimination or harassment shall not have any negative consequences.