First IT Solutions is committed to diversity and will promote diversity for all employees, workers and applicants and shall adhere to such a policy at all times. We will review on an on-going basis all aspects of recruitment to avoid unlawful or undesirable discrimination. First IT Solutions will treat everyone equally regardless of sex, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marital or civil partnership status, age, disability, color, race, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, political beliefs or membership or non-membership in a trade union, and places an obligation upon all staff to respect and act in accordance with the policy. First IT Solutions is committed to providing training for its entire staff in equal opportunities practice.

First IT Solutions shall not discriminate unlawfully when deciding which candidate is proposed for a vacancy or assignment, or in any terms of employment or terms of engagement for candidates. First IT Solutions will ensure that each candidate is assessed only in accordance with the candidate's merits, qualifications and abilities to perform the specific duties required by the particular vacancy.

First IT Solutions will not accept instructions from clients that indicate an intention to discriminate unlawfully.

DISCRIMINATION
Unlawful discrimination occurs in the following circumstances:

Direct discrimination
Direct discrimination occurs where one individual treats or would treat another individual less favorably on grounds of sex, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marital or civil partnership, age, disability, color, race, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, or political beliefs ("œthe protected categories.)

It is unlawful for a recruitment consultancy to discriminate against a person on the grounds of a protected category, including in any of the following ways:
*A in the terms on which the recruitment consultancy offers to provide any of its services;
*A by refusing or deliberately omitting to provide any of its services; and
*A in the way it provides any of its services.

Direct discrimination would also occur if a recruitment consultancy accepted and acted upon a job registration from an employer who requested that certain persons from a certain " œprotected category" are unacceptable for that job, unless that job fell within a specified exception, such as having a genuine occupational requirement that persons of the certain " œprotected category" could not meet, or the discrimination can be lawfully justified.

Indirect Discrimination
Indirect discrimination occurs where an agency or employer applies a provision, criterion or practice generally, but in practice this application disadvantages a minority group (a protected category of persons) in the community.

Indirect discrimination would also occur if a recruitment consultant accepted and acted upon an indirectly discriminatory instruction from an employer.

If the vacancy requires characteristics which amount to a genuine occupational requirement or the instruction is lawfully discriminatory due to a statutory exception or objective justification, First IT Solutions will not deal further with the vacancy unless the client provides written confirmation of such genuine occupational requirement, exception or justification.

DISABLED PERSONS
Direct Discrimination
Direct discrimination against a person occurs where, if for a reason which relates to the disabled person's disability, an individual:
*A treats him less favorably than he treats, or would treat, others to whom that reason does not or would not apply; and
*A the employer cannot show that the treatment in question is justified. Or
*AIf on the ground of a disabled person’s disability, he treats the disabled person less favorably than he treats or would treat a person not having that particular disability, whose relevant circumstances, including his abilities, are the same as, or not materially different from, those of the disabled person. This type of direct discrimination can never be justified.

Duty to make reasonable adjustments and to provide auxiliary aids and services
This is a similar protection to indirect discrimination in the other protected categories.

Where a provision, criterion or practice applied by or on behalf of an employer, or any physical feature of the employer’s premises, places a disabled person at a substantial disadvantage in comparison with persons who are not disabled, it will be the duty of an employer to take such steps as are reasonable, in all the circumstances of the case, to remove the provision, criterion, practice or physical feature.

Agencies must take reasonable steps to provide auxiliary aids or services if this would make it easier for the disabled person to use their services. For instance, an appropriate auxiliary aid or service can include the provision of information on audiotape or provision of a sign language interpreter.

First IT Solutions will not discriminate against a disabled person on the grounds of disability:
*A in arrangements, such as the application form, interview or other arrangements for selection for determining to whom a job should be offered; or
*A in the terms on which employment or engagement of temporary workers is offered; or
*A by refusing to offer, or deliberately not offering the disabled person a job for reasons connected with their disability; or
*A in the opportunities afforded to the person for receiving any benefit, or by refusing to afford, or deliberately not affording him or her any such opportunity; or
*A by subjecting him or her to any other detriment (detriment will include refusal of training or transfer, demotion, reduction of wage, or harassment).

First IT Solutions will accordingly make career opportunities available to all people with disabilities and every practical effort will be made to provide for the needs of staff, candidates and clients.
Wherever possible First IT Solutions will make reasonable adjustments to hallways, passages and doors in order to provide and improve means of access for disabled employees and workers. However, this may not always be feasible, due to circumstances creating such difficulties as to render such adjustments as being beyond what is reasonable in all the circumstances.

AGE DISCRIMINATION
First IT Solutions will not discriminate directly or indirectly, harass or victimize any person on the grounds of their age. We will encourage clients not to include any age criteria in job specifications and every attempt will be made to persuade clients to recruit on the basis of competence and skills and not age.

First IT Solutions is committed to recruiting and retaining employees whose skills, experience, and attitude are suitable for the requirements of the various positions regardless of age.
No age requirements will be stated in any job advertisements on behalf of the company.

First IT Solutions will request age as part of its recruitment process but such information will not be used as selection, training or promotion criteria or in any detrimental way and is only for compilation of personal data, which the company holds on all employees and workers and as part of its equal opportunities monitoring process.

PART-TIME WORKERS
This Diversity Policy also covers the treatment of those employees and workers who work on a part-time basis. First IT Solutions recognizes that it is an essential part of this policy that part-time employees are treated on the same terms, with no detriment, as full time employees (albeit on a pro rata basis) in matters such as rates of pay, holiday entitlement, maternity leave, parental and domestic incident leave and access to our pension scheme. First IT Solutions also recognizes that part-time employees must be treated the same as full time employees in relation to training and redundancy situations.

COMPLAINTS AND MONITORING PROCEDURES
First IT Solutions has in place procedures for monitoring compliance with this policy and for dealing with complaints of discrimination. These are available from Martine Derry. They will be made available immediately upon request.

Any discrimination complaint will be investigated fully.