Equal treatment, always!

When recruiting candidates, you can quickly make independent demands or comments that are discriminatory. Discrimination is prohibited by law, but apart from that we treat all candidates equally, in any case. No distinction is made based on religion, belief, political opinion, age, race, gender, nationality, sexual orientation, marital status or any other basis. Not even if the hirer requests this.

GENERAL PRINCIPLE

The policy of House of Covebo aims to offer fair employment opportunities in all phases of the working relationship (recruitment and selection, compiling and announcing vacancies, determining the salary and employment conditions, dismissal, and termination of the employment contract), without there being direct or indirect discrimination, (sexual) intimidation, instructions for discrimination and refusal to make reasonable adjustments to support people with disabilities.

WHAT IS DISCRIMINATION?

Discrimination can be defined as: making a direct or indirect distinction between people on the basis of sex and a change in sex, pregnancy, childbirth, motherhood, sex change, race, skin colour, origin, national or ethnic descent, nationality, age, sexual orientation, civil status, birth, wealth, religion or faith, language, current or future health condition, disability, physical or generic property, social background and appearance.

• Direct discrimination: when a direct distinction is made based on one of the forbidden grounds for discrimination.
• Indirect discrimination: when a standard, requirement or procedure appears to be neutral at first but indirectly leads to discrimination.

Justification of discrimination

Not all types of differentiation are forbidden. There are cases – on the grounds of applicable laws and regulations – when discrimination can be justified.

For example, permissible general grounds for justification include positive actions (affirmative action policy) and distinctions permitted law. Affirmative action policy is only permitted for women, ethnic minorities and persons with a disability or chronic illness and the policy must conform to strict statutory requirements. A distinction can also be justified by a legitimate (legally valid) objective if the means are appropriate and necessary.

VIEW OF HOUSE OF COVEBO

House of Covebo condemns all types of discrimination, irrespective of its basis, between candidates/colleagues and us (as employer), between colleagues themselves, and during interactions with customers

WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT FROM HOUSE OF COVEBO?

To create a safe working environment where people treat one another with respect; where there is room for a constructive dialogue; and where every form of undesirable behaviour is prevented and addressed if necessary. In addition, House of Covebo ensures familiarity with anti-discrimination policy, and its implementation throughout the organisation. This includes:

• actively adopting initiatives based on the policy;
• supplying the policy together with personnel regulations at the moment of employment;
• making sure that colleagues are always familiar with the policy;
• ensuring that the policy is published on the intranet;
• making sure that policy is part of the training offered to employees, using an E-learning course and live training.

In addition, colleagues must receive instructions about how to recognise discrimination and discriminatory requests. Colleagues must be prepared to face situations where they receive discriminatory requests from a client. They must know how to conduct and reorient such discussions with clients.

WHAT HOUSE OF COVEBO EXPECTS FROM YOU

You also bear personal responsibility when it comes to actively telling clients that you always want to avoid discrimination and that the company implements anti-discrimination policy. That is why you must be alert for request from clients that may be discriminatory in nature, be able to recognise such requests, and make sure that you do not cooperate with such requests.

If you have questions about discrimination, doubts in a specific situation, or if you know that someone is guilty of discrimination and are unable to resolve it yourself, you must report this to the fixed point of contact within House of Covebo.

For all questions regarding discrimination, you can contact us.

DUTY TO REPORT DISCRIMINATORY REQUESTS

Be vigilant for discrimination and make sure that you can prevent and avoid it. Partnerships cannot be established with people or companies that discriminate. If you come across discrimination, either direct or indirect, you are obliged to take action immediately against this. The request can in no way be carried out if it violates anti-discrimination legislation. If the request – e.g. from a customer or business contact – is justified, then it can be taken into account.