Guide for employers on supporting trans people.
Extract from document
This document provides a guide for an employer on supporting trans people, including those who are non-binary and non-gender in the workplace. Trans people are frequently disadvantaged at work, although this is not always deliberate. All existing and new practices and policies must be scrutinized to ensure that they take account of the impact they may have on minority groups, such as trans people.
People work better if they can be themselves so making trans people welcome makes good business sense. About 1% of the workforce may express their gender in ways that do not conform to the typical ‘man’ or ‘woman’ binary model.2,3,4 However, many trans people still choose not to express their feelings in the workplace because they fear a transphobic reaction from their employers and coworkers. This causes great stress so they are unlikely to perform to the best of their ability. A workplace in which diversity, including different gender identities, is celebrated, ensures that valuable staff are recruited and retained - an approach that benefits everyone, not just the groups targeted.
Trans employees are specifically protected by virtue of having the ‘protected characteristic’ of ‘gender reassignment’ under the Equality Act 2010 (EA) and, of course, they enjoy the protection afforded by the Data Protection Act 1998, and Human Rights Act 1998 (public sector). A small minority of trans people are also protected under the Gender Recognition Act 2004 (see: Summary of Law and Good Practice).
The employer is responsible for the following tasks:
- looking at existing policies and protocols and changing them where they might disadvantage a trans or non-binary person; this will help to avoid ‘indirect discrimination’ (see Law and Good Practice);
- providing a policy for the transition at work, and the employment of, trans staff, so that there is no risk of direct discrimination against trans people in the workplace (see Law and Good Practice, and Memorandum of Understanding);
- taking ‘positive action’ to recruit from these minority groups (see Law and Good Practice below);
- introducing a visible and publicised Code of Conduct in relation to all ‘protected characteristics’ (see page 1);
- running staff training and celebratory events to support trans staff e.g. LGBT History month (see Awareness Training and Celebrating Diversity);
- introducing training for staff about how to interact respectfully with trans people who are customers, or with whom the employer has other business dealings.
