ABSTRACT
Introduction Chapter 6 showed the law to be a weak instrument in terms of actually promoting equality and diversity at work and eradicating discrimination, partly because of the lack of preventive and proactive measures required and the prohibition of ‘class action’ within British law. We will also see in Chapter 8 that employers do not always voluntarily improve their policies and practices, and consequently ‘bottom-up’ pressure for equality from employees exerted through trade unions can be just as important as the ‘top-down’ commitment to diversity of senior management. Dickens et al. (1988: 65) have highlighted this, arguing that a ‘review of discriminatory terms and practice is more likely to occur where there is some form of joint regulation [trade union or employee involvement] than where issues are unilaterally determined by employers’. This means that unionized
Aim To explore the role for trade unions in advancing equality and diversity issues in employment and organizations.
