EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES POLICY

The managing director of G.A.W. Associates Ltd. is ultimately responsible for all staff selection, motivation and discipline.

Ageism
Whilst all prospective staff have and will continue to be chosen purely on ability and experience, we will show a positive bias on ageism (as evidenced by the fact that the majority of our staff are aged over 50).

Groups
No decisions on staff will ever take into account disability, sex, race, religion or colour other that in a positive manner i.e. the likelihood of their having wider language and cultural knowledge/experience.

Payment
All staff will be paid according to the current market rate (pro-rata for any part-time availability) regardless of any personal circumstances.  All other benefits associated with employment will be consistent throughout the company and will be defined from time-to-time by the staff council.

Harassment
One aspect of this policy is its intention to prevent, as far as is possible, the harassment of one person by another, whether on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, sexuality, race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, or any other personal attributes or views held by the person harassed.  Common sense suggests, however, that certain behaviour will by its nature or severity be unwelcome even on a single occasion.  Conduct which is acceptable to one person may prove to be unwelcome to another and the test applied must be that the conduct (whether unwitting or deliberate) is unacceptable to the recipient and would be judged as harassment by any reasonable person.  Racial or religious harassment may be defined as unacceptable conduct by an individual against an other or others, where the motivation is the colour, race, ethnic origin or religion of the target.  Such behaviour might include derogatory name-calling, belittling remarks, ridicule, insults, jokes, graffiti, verbal abuse, threats or physical assault because of cultural and/or religious differences.  It might also include any comments which imply that race or religion impair the person's ability to perform their role in the business community.  Harassment occurs where any such conduct creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive environment for the individual or group in dealings within the company.

Company values
The company recognises that the contribution its staff make towards the achievement of its objectives and the level of satisfaction they derive from their work is greatly influenced by the ways in which is employment policies and procedures are implemented.  In particular, members of staff who have managerial or supervisory responsibilities are expected to exercise their authority in ways which are conducive to the creation and maintenance of a co-operative working environment.  This includes the establishment of good professional working relationships in which the importance of treating people with dignity and fairness is recognised.