Sexual Orientation: poor performance in Stonewall Index poses questions on discrimination in the workplace

No law firms were listed in gay campaign group Stonewall’s Workplace Equality Index of the top 100 employers this week – a sign that the legal sector ‘may not be engaging at all’ with the issues surrounding discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, it has been claimed.


Of the 164 employers that put themselves forward for the Index, only one was a law firm – and it failed to make the grade.


Stephen Frost, director of workplace programmes at Stonewall, said the low participation from law firms ‘might be a reflection of the fact that there is not as much attention to [gay and lesbian] issues as there should be in law firms, and they may not be engaging at all with the issues’.


He added: ‘A lot of law firms are conducting workshops on civil partnership for clients, as opposed to looking at their own staff. They may be overlooking people who are not being treated fairly.’


However, the Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA), the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and Citizens Advice all featured in the list. The DCA finished 11th with 77%, while the CPS came 28th with 71%, and Citizens Advice took the 62nd spot, with 62%.


Stonewall praised the DCA’s training policy, which requires all members of staff to attend a day’s training on diversity awareness. It also noted that the department expects senior staff to act as role models for staff in lower grades.


Employers were judged on their responses to 20 questions covering diversity policy and practice. Those with the highest scores were then assessed on site by Stonewall.


The index features more than ten investment banks and nine retail banks, as well as professional services firms Accenture and PricewaterhouseCoopers. All of the top 30 employers had an explicit policy barring discrimination based on sexual orientation, and had offered benefits such as bereavement and adoption leave to same-sex couples prior to the Civil Partnership Act 2004.


All of the top firms had an officially recognised lesbian, gay and bisexual employee group for staff, and nearly all had a dedicated diversity team. More than one-third had an openly gay person on their board.


Responses for next year’s survey may be made through Stonewall’s Web site from later this month. Mr Frost added: ‘We will work with everyone who wants to try to improve, but sometimes it can be a problem convincing employers that they need help.’


For more information, visit: www stonewall.org.uk/workplace.