What the Act means for employers
Representing employers views
Further information and guidance
The Act will provide a new cross-cutting legislative framework to protect the rights of individuals and advance equality of opportunity for all. It updates, simplifies and strengthens previous legislation and aims to deliver a simple, modern and accessible framework of discrimination law which protects individuals from unfair treatment and promotes a fair and more equal society.
The Act’s key proposals include:
A new equality duty on the public sector - comes into effect in April 2011 and brings together the three existing duties (race, disability and gender) and extends it to gender reassignment, age, sexual orientation and religion or belief. It will also cover the legal requirements on equal pay. Public bodies will need to tackle discrimination and promote equality on all the key diversity strands.
An end to age discrimination - this covers service delivery as well as employment. The Act outlaws unjustifiable age discrimination by organisations that provide goods, facilities and services, and carry out public services. This intention has been further supported by the decision to scrap the default retirement age from October 2011 (insert link to relevant page).
Harmonisation and extension of discrimination law - direct or indirect discrimination will be prohibited "because of a protected characteristic" and will cover the nine areas of: age, disability, sex, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, race, religion or belief, marriage and civil partnerships. "Disability related" discrimination will be replaced with a prohibition on discriminating against a disabled person by treating them unfavourably where that treatment is not a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim.
Ensure transparency - this requires public bodies to comply with the Equality Duty and report on areas such as gender pay, ethnic minority employment and disability employment. Public bodies will also need to promote equality through their procurement and commissioning arrangements.
Strengthen enforcement – the Act aims to widen tribunals' powers to make recommendations in cases where unlawful discrimination has been proved. At present, a tribunal can recommend that an employer takes steps that will reduce the effect of discrimination on the claimant. The Act extends this to enable wide-ranging recommendations to be made applying across the workplace, such as re-training staff, publishing its selection criteria used for staff transfer or promotion, setting up a review panel to deal with equal opportunities, harassment and grievances. While not binding, failure to comply could be damaging to the employer's reputation and be used in evidence against the employer in future discrimination claims.
Dual Discrimination - a clause outlawing discrimination on the basis of two (and no more) protected characteristics was included in the Act. So, for example, someone who claims they have been specifically discriminated against because they are an Asian woman, rather than just because of their race or gender, will be able to claim for this combination of characteristics.
Extend the scope of positive action – including the possibility of allowing employers to consider the under-representation of disadvantaged groups when selecting between two equally qualified candidates, for example, women and people from ethnic minority communities.
A new duty to consider 'socio-economic disadvantage' - employers will need to consider this when deciding how to deliver services. This will be particularly relevant to primary care trusts as commissioners and links to the wider health inequalities agenda.
We continue to represent NHS employers' views on a number of national forums that have been set up to develop the details of the Act, including the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), Government Equalities Office (GEO), Care Quality Commission (CQC) and the Department of Health.
For more information about the implementation of the Act and sources of information and guidance available see our web page Equality Act: implementation and guidance