Context

Businesses are under pressure from a range of internal and external stakeholders to create and maintain genuinely diverse and inclusive workplaces. Consequently, more and more businesses want to collect and track Diversity and Inclusion (“D&I”) data about their staff. This may include information about gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnic origin, religion, socio-economic background health, and disability. This information may help organizations better understand the current profile of their workforce, assess the impact of their equal opportunities policies, determine what steps they may need to take to address any barriers to change and measure progress against any objectives/targets set.

However, in some countries, collection and tracking of such data is regulated by various laws and it is socially and culturally inappropriate to ask certain questions in this area.

In France, various regulations and case law restrict the collection of such data, including the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”). There is a particular sensitivity in relation to origin/race/ethnicity data (as notably stated in a decision from the French Constitutional Council of 15 November 2007 sanctioning the collection of such data in this context).

Draft recommendation

To guide organizations wishing to implement diversity measurement surveys, the CNIL is submitting a recommendation for public consultation until September 13, 2024 (the “Draft Recommendation”).

It notably includes GDPR-specific recommendations that were not in the guide “Measuring to progress towards equal opportunities” that the CNIL had published with the Defender of Rights twelve years ago (the “Guide”).

The recommendation addresses the following issues in relation to diversity surveys.Continue Reading Measuring Diversity at Work in France: the CNIL Launches a Public Consultation on a Draft Recommendation