NASUWT Representatives

64 www.nasuwt.org.uk• marriage and civil partnership;• pregnancy and maternity;• race;• religion or belief;• sex;• sexual orientation.Employees should therefore be protected by their employerfrom the following actions:• direct discrimination – acts of overt discrimination to aperson’s detriment, such as denying them promotion on thebasis of a protected characteristic;• indirect discrimination – a discriminatory provision, criterionor characteristic, such as a promotion requirement orworking pattern that cannot be objectively justified;• discrimination arising from disability – for instance, acapability procedure that arises from a person’s disabilityrelatedabsences;• harassment – acts of unwanted conduct that threaten orviolate a person’s dignity, such as making unreasonabledemands, bullying or ‘stalking’;• victimisation – particularly after making a complaint aboutdiscrimination or lodging a claim at an ET;• a failure to make reasonable adjustments in order toaccommodate a person’s disability.This duty of protection also includes the harassment of anemployee by a third party; for instance, a contractor carrying outwork on a school site who abuses a member of staff.The NASUWT believes all schools and colleges should auditand review all of their existing policies and procedures to ensurethat they comply with the Equality Act 2010 as well as with therelevant education codes of practice and guidance issued bythe Equality and Human Rights Commission in England,Scotland and Wales.From April 2011, the Act also introduced a single Public SectorEquality Duty (PSED), which applies to schools. Maintainedschools, including pupil referral units (PRUs) (in England) andacademies, are public authorities and will be subject to thepublic sector Equality Duty. Schools have obligations under theAct in three aspects of their activities: as employers; as bodiesthat carry out public functions; and as service providers. Insummary, those subject to the general quality duty must, in theexercise of their functions, have due regard to the need to:l eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment andvictimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Act;For advice and help ˚ Local Association ˚ Regional Centre ˚ National Executive