Think carefully before you monitor says TUC

Employers considering establishing how many of their employees are gay and lesbian and how many of these workers might be happy for their workmates to know about their sexuality should think very carefully before embarking on a monitoring exercise, the TUC has warned today (Wednesday) as it publishes new guidance for unions and employers.

Although the law now prevents gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees from being sacked or treated unfairly because of their sexuality, the TUC says that homophobia and discrimination against gay workers has not disappeared from UK workplaces. Any attempt to monitor employees must be confidential and sensitive, or it could end up causing more problems than it solves, says the TUC.

Publishing the guidelines encouraging unions to talk to employers about carrying out sexual orientation monitoring exercises, the TUC says that any employer keen to find out more about the composition of their workforce should proceed carefully, otherwise there is a danger that rather than enhancing equality at work, the exact opposite will be achieved.

The law does not require employers to monitor their employees for sexual orientation purposes - unlike the obligation to do so on the grounds of race and gender - but the TUC guidelines say that if handled sensibly, finding out more about how many gay people there are in supervisory positions or how many are taking up employee benefits, could help encourage a more understanding and discrimination-free environment at work.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: The law may have changed to give gay and lesbian workers the legal protection they were previously denied, but the homophobic attitudes that have made life a misery for so many are not going to disappear overnight.

Employers might think that discovering the numbers of gay people in their workforce will help them provide a more pleasant environment in which to work. But unless handled sensitively, any monitoring exercise could be at best a waste of time, and at worse backfire, with staff refusing to answer the questions honestly. Employers and unions need to work closely to establish what is best for their own particular workplace. Our new guidelines should help them do just that.

When considering whether or not to embark on a sexual orientation monitoring exercise, the TUC guidelines urge employers to:

Only proceed if they have a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality policy already in place, and they are clear about why they want to monitor and what they intend to do with the results; There needs to be an absolute guarantee of confidentiality of the information collected and that the data remains anomymous; The monitoring form needs to make it clear that answering the questions on sexual orientation or gender identity is optional.