Discrimination legislation will not adversely affect businesses in Guernsey

To claim that there is little or no discrimination in Guernsey therefore no need for the law and yet then to claim that compliance with such legislation will have a massive impact is somewhat illogical.

If it is believed that we already are as accessible and non-discriminatory as possible, it is hard to see why any business would have anxiety about being compliant with the proposals ESS have put forward.

I find it disturbing that some business groups and now the media are trying to polarise the issue, pitting the GDA on one side and the interests of business on the other as if the interests of both groups are mutually incompatible. This is simply not true, indeed many of us campaigning for equality legislation are ourselves part of the business community and are no less concerned that the responsibilities of employers and service providers should be proportionate and fair.

We (our family business) employ most of our staff in jurisdictions that already have anti-discrimination legislation in place. We have never found it particularly expensive or onerous. It does not prevent us from employing the best people for the job (actually probably the reverse). Our policies on equality and diversity and willingness to accommodate a range of needs, helps recruitment; and we have excellent staff retention rates. We have never in our 41 years of operation been taken to an employment tribunal or accused of discrimination. Our experience as employers is completely the reverse of the exaggerated scenarios suggested by one very prominent businessman whose views were given front page prominence.

To suggest these proposals are being rushed through is somewhat ironic, as the Prevention of Discrimination (enabling provision) Law was passed in 2004 and a further commitment to providing disability discrimination legislation was given by the States in 2013. Fifteen years to get used to the idea that we were eventually going to have equality law doesn’t seem rushed to me.

Once the task of developing equality legislation was delegated to ESS they have actually done an amazing job. There has been extensive research and consultation with both external experts on equality law and local stakeholder groups, including members of the business community. This has been followed by 12 weeks of public consultation on draft proposals during which the ESS team have given presentations to, and responded to questions from numerous stakeholder groups (the consultation remains open until the end of this month). This has probably been the most thoroughly researched and widely consulted-upon piece of legislation that we have seen.

It seems entirely reasonable that the team would want to bring the final draft to the States for debate this term, lest the momentum be lost completely.

C. HALL

Director, Nicholas Hall Europe (Nicholas Hall Group) and parent of disabled son.