ORB: Employment

The Fair Employment Legislation - Survey of Employers' Experiences

Author(s):	Market Research Northern Ireland Ltd
Commissioned by:	Central Community Relations Unit
Document Type:	Research Paper
Year:	1993
Title of Publication:	Employment Equality Review Research Report No 1
Publisher:	Central Community Relations Unit
Place of Publication:	Belfast
Subject Area(s):	Employment, Equality Issues
Client Group(s):	Employers

Abbreviations: CCRU - Central Community Relations Unit, FEC - Fair Employment Commission, MRNI - Market Research Northern Ireland

Background to the Research

In November 1991, MRNI won the contract to conduct a survey of employers, designed to obtain information on their experiences in complying with the Fair Employment (Northern Ireland) Act 1989 during the early stages of its operation. As suggested by the CCRU, the research was based on a postal survey of a stratified random sample of employers registered with the FEC.

Research Approach

The sample was drawn from those companies who completed a 1990 monitoring return and from the public sector organisations. The sample was drawn by the FEC from their database of employers in accordance with CCRU specifications. A proportionate stratified sample using a uniform sampling fraction of one third was drawn to provide a sample of 596 employers.
Information was gathered through use of a postal questionnaire which was sent to the sample of 596 companies and organisations. Fieldwork was carried out between February and May 1992 and achieved an overall 62% response rate.

Key Findings

Assistance with the monitoring exercise

The majority of Northern Ireland companies first began monitoring their workforces in 1990 in compliance with the provisions of the 1989 Act.
Public sector organisations and larger companies had shown a tendency to monitor staff earlier than smaller employers.
In conducting the exercise almost all companies and organisations made use of Fair Employment Code of Practice. Many companies looked no further than the Code of Practice for assistance, with only 41% actually making contacts with the FEC for advice or information.
Among respondents, just over half of all private sector companies who were eligible for assistance under the Fair Employment Support Scheme actually applied for it, with the greatest tendency to do so displayed by companies with over 100 employees.
For almost three quarters of all companies, the 1990 monitoring exercise represented an integral part of an overall equal opportunities policy within the company. This finding was slightly more common in the public sector and was unaffected by company size.
To the majority of companies, monitoring equal opportunity in the workplace relates only to religion and sex with less than one third including other areas such as marital status or disability in their monitoring process.

Additional Staff and Costs

In order to undertake the 1990 monitoring exercise and, more generally, to comply with the new Fair Employment legislation, less than one in ten companies employed additional staff with the public sector and large companies most likely to take on additional people.
Four in ten companies incurred additional costs in complying with the monitoring exercise with public sector and large companies again having the greatest frequency of additional expenses.
For the public sector and large companies, computerisation was a key expenditure item whereas the expenses incurred by smaller companies were more attributable to the purchase of general office equipment.
The public sector and large companies were more likely to have invested larger amounts of capital in the monitoring procedure than other employers.

The Monitoring Exercise

Few companies used more than two or three people in conducting the monitoring exercise with 40% using only one staff member.
Few private sector companies made any organisational changes in order to carry out the exercise compared to 27% of public sector organisations which made structural changes to facilitate the procedure.
Administration of the exercise was undertaken manually in the majority of organisations. However, in the public sector almost two thirds undertook computerised analysis of staff.
Very few companies regarded monitoring as a low priority exercise. Three quarters of the public sector regarded it as being of high priority. In terms of company size, the priority of the exercise was directly proportional to the size of the company.

Reactions of Workforce

Consultation took place with trade union representatives in just under half of those companies with organised unions. Consultation was particularly high in the public sector with almost three quarters of all public sector bodies consulting with their trade union representatives prior to undertaking the exercise.
Of those companies with organised trade unions, the reported reaction was either positive or unremarkable. Very few were actually negative or resistant to the legislation.
A few companies felt that the response to the monitoring exercise had been low in certain occupational groups - especially in the public sector and larger companies where manual workers were generally felt to be the least responsive.

The Degree of Difficulty Encountered

The principal method of monitoring most favoured was the direct question, used by over three quarters of all companies in the private sector. The public sector used the direct question and first schools method in almost equal proportions.
Difficulties in the monitoring procedure were relatively prevalent with over two thirds finding some difficulty in counting applicants - though the degree of reported difficulty in many cases was only slight.

The Impact Upon Employment Practices

The 1989 Fair Employment legislation has had an impact upon the employment practices of a sizable number of companies but by no means a majority.
In overall terms just over a quarter felt the exercise had been useful as opposed to a third who felt that it had not, leaving a sizable proportion with no strong opinion either way.
Personnel practices were felt to have improved in 40% of companies as a result of the legislation, with staff recruitment procedures also changed to a similar degree, especially among larger companies.
The main apparent change in staff recruitment appears to be in the advertising of posts, especially in the private sector.
Just under a third of companies introduced affirmative action measures with employers in the private sector active in this area than their public sector counterparts. Of those who had introduced affirmative action measures, just under half had introduced goal and timetables relating to these measures..

The Section 31 Review

Section 31 of the 1989 Act requires employers to undertake a review of employment composition and practices at least once every three years. Just under half of all companies had already begun their review and many felt they required some help in undertaking it.
Only in setting the goals and timetables did public sector 'confidence' in handling the various components of the review approach that of the private sector, with two thirds still requiring some assistance.