Privacy Policy
General statement
When you supply any personal information via the Softuk.com website (such as through the registration pages) we have legal obligations towards you in the way we deal with that data. We must collect the information fairly, that is, we must explain how we will use it and tell you if we want to pass the information on to anyone else. In general, any information you provide to Softuk.com will only be used by softuk.com in order to provide you with the service you have signed up for. It will never be supplied to anyone else without first obtaining your consent, unless we are obliged by law to disclose it. We will hold your personal information on our systems for as long as you use the service you have requested. We will ensure that all personal information supplied is held securely, in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998.

If you are notified on the site that your information may be used to allow us to contact you for "administration purposes", this means that we may contact you for a number of reasons related to the service you have signed up for. For example, we may wish to provide you with password reminders or notify you that the particular service has been suspended for maintenance. We may contact you from time to time for promotional purposes, such as notifying you of improvements to the service or new services on the softuk.com website unless you specifically ask not to be contacted for such purposes at the time you submit your information on the site, or at a later time if you sign up specifically to receive such information.

Access to your personal information
You have the right to request a copy of the personal information Softuk.com holds about you and to have any inaccuracies corrected. (We may charge an administration fee for information requests.) Please address requests to the Data Controller at softuk.com (email: customerservice@softuk.com).

Equal Opportunities Policy
General Statement
1. The Company is an equal opportunities employer and is committed to opposing all forms of discrimination. The Company will not tolerate discrimination based upon disability, marital status, race (which means colour, race, nationality, ethnic or national origins), sex, sexual orientation or age. The aim of this policy is to ensure that all members of staff know that they are able to work in an environment that is free from discrimination and are able to achieve their full potential in their job. The Company will make decisions without reference to discriminatory criteria. All members of staff must be aware of this Equal Opportunities Policy and should abide by its terms at all times including in their dealings with clients and candidates. To this end, all members of staff will receive training in equal opportunities and will be required to participate in the Company's ongoing training and development programme.

The definition of discrimination
2. In a number of areas the law protects employees and discriminatory conduct or omissions are prescribed by Government legislation. There are specific concepts of discrimination which make it clear what is unlawful.

Direct Discrimination
3. The first area, which has become known as direct discrimination, occurs when an individual is treated less favourably than another person on the grounds of their disability, marital status, sex or race. Whilst the law does not recognise discrimination based upon sexual orientation or age, unless it is based upon one of the recognised reasons, the Company will treat less favourable treatment on these grounds as a disciplinary offence. It does not matter that you may believe you are acting in the interests of the individual or the employee if your less favourable treatment is on one of these grounds. This is because if you would not have treated a person who did not possess that characteristic in the same way this is direct discrimination.

Indirect Discrimination
4. Indirect discrimination occurs when a requirement or condition is applied to an employee that the employee finds he/she is not able to meet because of one of marital status, sex or race and which cannot be shown to be objectively justified. This means that if the requirement or condition has a disproportionate effect on the particular group it will be indirect discrimination; that is a considerably smaller proportion of one sex, those who are married or of one race can comply when compared to the other sex, single people or other racial groups.

5. Whilst this concept may appear technical it is of importance since the Company may incur liability if you, in the scope of the duties entrusted to you, apply requirements or conditions that are discriminatory against a particular group.

Reasonable adjustments
6. Disability discrimination does not have a concept of indirect discrimination because the legislation goes further and requires the Company to make a reasonable adjustment to seek to take away the disadvantage a disabled person may have in the workplace because of the disability. This means that the Company will consider alternative means by which a disabled person may be able to carry out the job or alternatively whether other steps may be possible.

Victimisation
7. Victimisation occurs where an individual is treated less favourably by fellow workers for asserting the above rights and this would not have happened if these rights had not been asserted.

COMPANY POLICY STATEMENT
The Company will not tolerate discrimination on any grounds and operates an active Equal Opportunities Policy. However, it cannot operate to stamp out discrimination unless it is made aware that this is happening. Discrimination may be treated as part of the disciplinary procedure, grievance procedure or as sexual harassment depending upon its nature. The Equal Opportunities Policy will apply at all stages from recruitment, throughout employment to issues of termination of employment, and in connection with all dealings with clients and candidates.

8. All recruitment procedures followed by the Company will be on the basis of fair and objectively justified criteria. Where job applicants have a disability the position of the Applicant will be reviewed and all possible steps will be taken to ensure that the Applicant does not suffer from any disadvantage in the recruitment process.

9. Throughout your employment you are expected to conduct yourself in a manner that is not discriminatory and the Company will take all possible steps to ensure that equal opportunity is maintained. This will include:

9.1 Ensuring that job specifications relate to the requirements for the performance of the job and that all advertisements published or displayed, whether on its own behalf or on behalf of its clients and candidates, do not discriminate unless the nature or circumstances of the job specifically require an individual of a particular sex or religion. (The Company recognises that it will never be acceptable to discriminate on the grounds of marriage and discrimination will rarely be justified on disability grounds.)

9.2 Providing equal opportunity training as the Company considers it is appropriate to enable you and other staff to implement equal opportunities.

9.3 Monitoring the ethnic and gender composition of the workforce. This will be done in accordance with accepted practice as recommended by Equal Opportunities bodies or good human resources practice. All monitoring will be used only for the purpose of equal opportunity monitoring and will be anonymous.

9.4 In the case of disability, considering what steps may be taken to ensure disabled individuals are not disadvantaged.

10. Complaints

Any complaints of discrimination and/or breaches of this Equal Opportunities Policy should be reported to EqualOpportunities@Softuk.com as soon as possible.