Non-discrimination and equality in the workplace is a fundamental right of the employees. Employees have the right to equal treatment, and opportunity in the workplace and the employers have an obligation to ensure that their businesses are free from harassment and discriminations. Promoting equality and nondiscriminatory practices in the company bring clear benefits such as productivity improvements and innovation. Additionally, it also ensures that workers can work without fear and hence complete their assigned duties effectively. The employers who promote non-discriminatory practices in the company are regarded as socially responsible employers, and such title is important to the success of the business.
Equal Treatment and Opportunity
Equality of treatment and opportunity in occupation and employments means that all people irrespective of their sex, religious beliefs, ethnicity, gender or any other personal quality can be employed based on their capabilities without the interference of bias or discriminations. In an enterprise equality of treatment and opportunity means that all the employment and recruitment practices are done based on merit, experience, skills of the employee or applicant in question ( Pizer et.al, 2011) . Additionally, diversity should also have adequate considerations when the company is recruiting employee personnel. The employees are not supposed to exclude anyone forms employment opportunity or treat them different because of sex, religion, ethnicity, disability health status and other attributes.
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The employees should avoid making generalizations or assumptions about the aptitude and skills of a person grounded on one’s personal attributes. They should examine every person based on his/her individuals’ aptitudes and abilities ( Pizer et.al, 2011) . Prejudice, discrimination, bias or stereotyped assumptions should not interfere with the recruitment process. The primary objective of equal treatment and opportunity is to nullify the disparities in the labor market and promote a free choice in the selection of employment opportunities.
Fair Recruitment Procedures
Various research and international experiences indicate that discrimination occurs whether consciously or unconsciously particularly during the recruitment practice compared to any other human resource process. Therefore ensuring that recruitment practices and policies are not discriminatory is of great importance in attaining an equal workforce. Consequently, many SMEs initiate their commitment to realizing equality by analyzing their recruitment procedures. Nondiscriminatory recruitment procedures are of great significance to companies ( Gardner, 2015) .
Employing the right person is important, and hence the employers should be vigilant. The selection process may have several elements such as job development, advertising, description, application forms, aptitude tests and finally an interview. The employers have an obligation of observing the code of practice that is set on employers promoting equal treatment and opportunity and avoiding discrimination. The recruitment process should be fair and transparent ( Gardner, 2015) . The practices and policies which are correlated to the recruitment procedure ought to be reviewed win consultation with the representatives of the workers to make sure that they are free from bias and discriminations. For instance, a company may put up an advertisement indicating a job vacancy such as a doctor and the one of the requirement may be good-looking. Such an advertisement is discriminatory, and hence employers should avoid them at all costs.
Fair treatment during employment
It is important to adhere to fair treatment to all the employees in the workplace. Equal treatment meant that are the employee are rewarded and compensated based on their true value and contribution of the duties they perform. Additionally, other work conditions should be allocated and defined without discrimination. When employees are treated equally, they feel that they are valued, and as a result, their wellness, loyalty, and commitment is increased Gardner, 2015) . Employers should make decisions that reflect professionalism and promoted fair treatment and diversity in among the workforce.
All the employees should be aware that the have an equal chance of getting a promotion and this motivates them to work hard. As a result, substantive improvements in labor productivity will be observed ad the company will benefit from it immensely. Most of the leading companies ensure that a merit-based performance is observed at all time. Provision of development opportunities and training are some of the programs that such companies offer to all their employees.
Pay and Benefits
The employee should be paid based on the value of the job. The objective criteria should determine salary increment and benefits. Individual differences in salaries based on performance rating are not discriminatory, and the systems used for performance assessment should be free from any bias and executed in a non-discriminatory procedure. The employee should be alerted on how their pay was made up, for instance, the system used to calculate the performance pay. Employers should ensure that the rules, practices, and requirements of the company regarding salary increments and benefits do not discriminate against any ethnic group ( Reinhart & Rogoff, 2013) . The criteria used in this case should be objective. Partiality and prejudice in the systems of performance appraisal cause biased performance rating and as a result discriminatory performance increments.
The employers have a responsibility of ensuring that biased assessment of individual employees is not used whether consciously or unconsciously to pay workers lower wages. It would be unfair for certain workers to express proof of their output whereas others are not obligated to do so. Therefore the employer should be committed to paying equity and also promote such practices within their circles of influence Gardner, 2015) . The employers should pay their employees fairly and equitable to realize the potential of the business in realizing huge benefits.
Terms and Conditions of Work
It is an offense for employees to discriminate employees based on the term and condition they provide. Some of these terms and conditions include;
assignment of duties and work
work hours including overtime
annual leave entitlement
maternity and paternity leave
sickness leave
The employees should ensure that workers are assigned duties in a fair and equal manner. For instance, some employers give some employee such as the rural migrants' tasks that are more hazardous compared to others, and this is discrimination. Moreover giving some employee less demanding tasks is unjust and discriminatory. Employee bullying such as continuously assigning a person least pleasant tasks is harassment. The employers have the responsibility of ensuring the workplace is safe from ay hazards both mental and physical elements affecting health ( Akande, 2013) . Sexual harassment is also a form of workplace hazard that causes stress, fear, anxiety and physical sickness among the employees. The employers should make sure that no form of sexual harassment takes place in the workplace.
Work hours should also be allocated fairly, and the employees should not be forced to work overtime. Arrangements should be made that invite the workers' organizations as well as the employee to present their view on this matter. It is also considerate for the employer to acknowledge the employees who have special needs when allocating holiday periods and work shifts. For instance, Muslim employees who go to pray on Fridays should be given a day off on Fridays unless if such arrangement causes strains and hardship to the company.
Training and Development
Training and development have a pivotal role in enhancing equitable career progression of all employees irrespective of their background or ethnicity. For this reason, it is significant that employees should not discriminate all the arrangements made for training or development opportunities. It is important to execute a policy on training, development and transfer highlighting various development opportunities that are open to all personnel ( Connolly & Connolly, 2016) . Training and development eligibility should be governed concerning the objective –selection criteria. Affirmative action measures of the company should be given adequate attention.
The training and development opportunities should be analyzed to detect any disparities that exist between the workers' ability, sex or migration status. If considerable variations are observed, then measures ought to b take to encourage the underrepresented employees to apply for training opportunities. Therefore the employees should be offered with training opportunities that will further enhance their skills, and in return, their productivity will increase, and the company will benefit.
Termination of Employment
The employees should make sure that the workers are not laid off, dismissed, forced to retire and given unfavorable treatment that is discriminatory. Retrenchment and dismissals should be done with accordance to the labor laws and the principle of equal treatment. Women workers should retire the same age as men or when they wish. Dismissals should always be reasonable and fair. When deciding to dismiss an employee the decision should be based on misconduct or documented poor performance. Therefore the employees should have non-biased and accurate records on the conduct and performance of the employee. Before reaching a dismissal decision, the employee should be given an opportunity to present his/her views about the performance ratings ( Kivel, 2011) .
Even if the employers ought to undertake retracements measures for instance due to the changes in the business volume, adequate attention is necessary to ensure that the implementation of such arrangement is non-discriminatory. Any practices that may have an adverse impact on certain groups of people should be handled. The employers are not supposed to lay off women compared to the men based on the generalization that women are merely secondary income earners in their houses. The salaries of the women may be the primary income in the family. Hence the employers have a responsibility of keeping accurate records of both retrenchments and dismissals.
References
Akande, A. (2013). The glass ceiling: Women and mentoring in management and business. Employee Councelling Today .
Connolly Jr, W. B., & Connolly, M. J. (2016). A Practical Guide to Equal Employment Opportunity . Law Journal Press.
Gardner, J. W. (2015). Excellence: Can we be equal and excellent too? Pickle Partners Publishing.
Kivel, P. (2011). Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice Ð 3rd Edition . New Society Publishers.
Pizer, J. C., Sears, B., Mallory, C., & Hunter, N. D. (2011). Evidence of persistent and pervasive workplace discrimination against LGBT people: The need for federal legislation prohibiting discrimination and providing for equal employment benefits. Loy. LAL Rev. , 45 , 715.
Reinhart, C. M., & Rogoff, K. S. (2013). Banking crises: an equal opportunity menace. Journal of Banking & Finance , 37 (11), 4557-4573.
