Equality Policy

 
 
 

The Journal of Trading Standards is published by the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, working in partnership with communications agency Fourth Estate Creative. Both organisations are committed to encouraging equality, diversity and inclusion in both the output of the Journal of Trading Standards brand and the workforce that produces it.

 

Fourth Estate Creative primarily uses a freelance workforce. Pursuing equality, diversity and inclusion among that workforce is very important to us. This represents a commitment to fairness first and foremost, but diversity is also integral to good communications. Different perspectives, experience, lifestyles and cultural references enrich creative endeavour and inform and refine written and spoken content.

 

We want our freelance workers, writers, contributors and those we interview to be truly representative of all sections of the society in which we work and the sectors and professions we cover. And we want them all to feel respected and valued.

 

We are strongly opposed to any form of discrimination on the basis of sex, gender, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, class, culture, religion, age, disability, parenthood or pregnancy.

 

We also know that skill, talent, vision and voice do not discriminate on any of these bases and our workforce would be much poorer if we did so. The media in the UK (and elsewhere) is notoriously lacking in diversity and it is a crucial part of our mission at Fourth Estate Creative – and through the Freelance Fellowship we run – to open up opportunities to anyone with talent, regardless of personal characteristics, and to draw on the full range of backgrounds and perspectives in the industry.

 

We choose our freelancers based on their work alone and pay them all at standardised rates and according to standardised terms. Our editorial contributors and interviewees are approached based on their relevant experience and expertise, and we always make sure we have considered and contacted as diverse a range of people as possible.