Dominic Holmes
Dominic Holmes, senior associate at international law firm Taylor Vinters, specialises as an employment lawyer with particular expertise in employment litigation, TUPE, contractual issues and disability discrimination.
He talks to Female First about the importance of having women working in companies and explains the meaning of UK equality legislation and how it could help you, as well as the introduction of shared parental regime which will be introduced in April 2015.
Women in the boardroom by Dominic Holmes
There is an important ongoing debate about how to encourage companies to appoint a greater proportion of female directors. Statistics suggest that some progress has been made – women currently hold around one-fifth of FTSE 100 board positions. However, this figure is still short of the Government’s target of 25% by 2015 and most female board members are currently non-executive directors.
It seems self-evident that greater diversity in board membership (whether in terms of gender, age, ethnicity or disability) is good for business, bringing fresh ideas to corporate strategy and a closer alignment between a company’s management and the people who ultimately matter most – its customers. However, it is not universally accepted that more women on boards means better financial performance.
Currently, UK equality legislation does permit employers to take account of any under-representation of women when considering competing recruitment applications from men and women, but only where the candidates are otherwise equally qualified. This is known as “positive action”. However, it will be rare that two candidates are exactly equal in terms of their skills and experience (particularly at senior level). There is a fine line between positive action and unlawful discrimination (that is, favouring a less-qualified female candidate over a more suitable male candidate), so decisions based on positive action are, in my view, fraught with danger.
A draft EU directive on gender imbalance is in the pipeline which would, amongst other things, require listed companies to ensure that at least 40% of their non-executive director positions are held by people whose sex is under-represented. This may make it easier in future for big corporations to tackle any gender imbalance at board level.
Further, in the UK a new shared parental leave regime comes into force in April 2015. This may be of particular benefit to couples where a woman is the main earner, allowing her greater flexibility to continue her career progression following the birth or adoption of a child. This will apply in relation to all employers, not just listed companies.
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