Practice areas

The Equality Act 2010

APRIL 2010

We have been waiting for a long time for it to be finalised and now here it is.  The Equality Bill, having been approved by the House of Commons, received Royal Assent on 8th April 2010.  The Equality Act 2010 is now set to be in force from October 2010.

The purpose of the Act is to unify the present law on discrimination and to widen it in some areas.

The Act harmonises, re-states and repeals existing discrimination legislation relating to sex, race, disability, sexual orientation, religion/belief and age, it also introduces new rights and remedies for protection against discrimination.

The main changes to present discrimination law are briefly summarised below. At the end of this article there is a link to a very useful and recommended Briefing from Incomes Data Services which gives more detail and also explains what may change as a result of the General Election.

We are arranging a Goodman Derrick Briefing Seminar on the Act to take place in June 2010 which will be announced in GD Online and on our website at www.gdlaw.co.uk.

New provisions

Disability discrimination:

  • The introduction of a single objective 'justification' test;
  • The introduction of new methods of claiming disability discrimination – restricting employers from querying a prospective employee’s health and disability, priorto an offer or employment;
  • The introduction of the single 'public sector equality duty' which will apply to public bodies;
  • Discrimination by association or perception – clarification of the “unlawfulness” of such discrimination;
  • Reasonable adjustments to be made by service providers – It will be easier to claim reasonable adjustments from service providers;
  • The introduction of transparency on the number of disabled employees employed within an organisation – including public authorities;

Sex Discrimination/Equal Pay:

  • The introduction of measures requiring transparency on pay (male and female);

Sexual Orientation/Religion & Religious Belief:

  • The introduction of the extension of protection from discrimination, beyond the workplace, in providing goods and services to consumers.  It will now be unlawful to refuse the provision of any services to a person, based upon their sexual orientation, religion or religious belief, for example refusing a homosexual couple a room at a bed and breakfast facility;

Age:

  • The extension of protection from discrimination, beyond the workplace, in providing goods and services to consumers.  As above, it will now be unlawful to refuse the provision of any services on the basis of a person’s age.

The Act has been long awaited in order to unify discrimination legislation in one single piece of legislation, widening the overall scope of the law relating to discrimination.

The Briefing from Incomes Data Services can be found at: http://www.incomesdata.co.uk/areas-of-expertise/employment-law/downloads/Feature900.pdf

Alison Downie
Head of Department & Partner

 

 

 

If you would like any further information about the issues raised in this newsletter, or any other aspect of employment law, please contact Alison Downie (adownie@gdlaw.co.uk) or any other member of Goodman Derrick LLP's employment team on 0207 404 0606.

This guide is for general information and interest only and should not be relied upon as providing specific legal advice.

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