legal news
Te Equality Act 2010 - Implications for ARCA and ATAC Members
Introduction After extensive consultation the Equality Bill
has received Royal Assent and the Equality Act 2010 (“the Act”) will come into force in October this year. Current discrimination legislation is contained in many different acts and statutory instruments, has been difficult to interpret and inconsistencies have arisen. Te Act seeks to rectify these inconsistencies where possible. Te Act brings together and re-states the
existing discrimination legislation concerning sex, race, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief and age, and seeks to adopt a single approach where appropriate. It also contains a number of important changes to the law. Te Act has two main aims: 1. to harmonise discrimination law; and 2. to strengthen it.
Key Changes Te Act introduces a number of key changes.
Tese include, but are not limited to:
• Defining and harmonising the different kinds of discrimination; Te Act will set out the “protected
characteristics” that form the basis of discrimination law. Tere is no change from the list of characteristics protected under current law definitions but direct discrimination and harassment will be widened by the Act. It will now be possible for individuals to claim direct discrimination based on ‘association’ and ‘perception.’
• Creating a right to bring a combined discrimination claim based on two different protected characteristics (from April 2011);
So, for example, Asian women will be able
to claim that they have been discriminated against due to a combination of their protected characteristics rather than because of their race
or gender. It is important to note that this only relates to claims of direct discrimination. Indirect discrimination, victimisation and harassment are not covered by these provisions.
• Positive discrimination; Employers will be able to recruit or promote
someone from an under-represented minority where there is a choice between two or more equally matched individuals. Tis is a controversial measure and it is likely that employers will be reluctant to rely upon it.
• Limiting the enforceability of contractual ‘pay secrecy’ clauses Employers will no longer be able to prevent
employees from discussing remuneration. Te Act will ban pay secrecy clauses and employers will not be able to discipline employees who reveal details of their remuneration so as to allow women to openly challenge unfair pay.
• Reporting on gender pay gaps and ethnic minorities;
Te Act will make it possible for the
government to require all employers with more than 250 staff to report on their gender pay gap from 2013. Public bodies with more than 150 employees will also be required to report on gender pay as well as other equality data including the number of black, Asian and minority ethnic workers in their organisation, by April 2011. However, it should be noted that the gender pay gap is an area of the Act that the Conservatives suggested they would repeal prior to the election, so this may not survive.
• Prohibition of Pre-employment health questionnaires
Employers will be prevented from asking
candidates questions about their health that do not relate to the job role in question prior to making an offer of employment.
Impact upon ARCA &
ATAC Members Te Act is a major piece of legislation that
will affect all employers in some capacity. Te Act will have particularly significant impact in the public sector and will therefore impact upon any individuals or companies pitching to public sector organisations for work. It will be necessary for all companies to review existing polices, programmes and services to ensure that they enable them to demonstrate that they are doing everything that is reasonably practicable to promote inclusion and equality and compliance with the Act. Public sector tendering will focus even more
on ascertaining how prospective bidders are implementing the aims of the Act and how they can demonstrate that they are an equal opportunities employer. Public authorities will use existing equality duties to ask contractors for information on equality, for example, what percentage of their staff are from ethnic minorities. If any member would like to discuss the
implications of the Act please do not hesitate to contact a member of the Employment Team.
Nick Hine, Partner Email:
nhine@dac.co.uk Davies Arnold Cooper LLP 6-8 Bouverie Street, London EC4Y 8DD DDI: 0207 293 4102 M: 079 3136 0372 T: 020 7936 2222 F: 020 7936 2020
www.dac.co.uk London Madrid Manchester Mexico City
ARCA & ATAC NEWS
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