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Equality Act Passed by the Commons Last Night

Jon Friend

New Employment Law: The Equality Act 2010

Our Employment Solicitors are now voraciously reading through the 210 clauses and 28 schedules of the Equality Act 2010, which was passed in the House of Commons last night. If you want to join in the excitement for yourself, you can now read the full Equality Act 2010 at http://bit.ly/ahINEc.

5 Major Legal Changes

Alternatively, if you know better, here is a brief summary by Jon Friend, an employment solicitor, of five of the changes to employment law:

1. Employers will no longer be able to prevent their employees from discussing pay, or whether employees with “protected characteristics” are receiving less pay than others. Disciplining an employee for discussing these matters, will soon amount to victimisation.

2. The different regimes for assessing whether discrimination has taken place on grounds of age, religion, belief and marriage / civil partnership will soon be changed significantly to harmonise the relevant legislation.  

3. Employers will no longer be able to ask prospective job applicants about their health, or if they have a disability (unless it is intrinsic to the job function). But, employers will still be able to refuse to employ candidates on the basis of objective health screenings, after they have made a job offer.

4. Discrimination by association will shortly be extended to all “protected characteristics”, to protect spouses, parents, carers and relatives of disabled or older people (because of their association with that person).

5. Finally, employers will able to take “positive action” when assessing two equally qualified candidates, by offering the job (on a case by case basis) to the candidate who is from an under represented group (if the employer’s aim is to increase the diversity of their workforce).

Timetable for the Changes: Employers be Aware!

The proposed timetable for implementation the various provisions is:
• October 2010 – Main provisions will come into force. 
• April 2011: Extra public sector duties will come into force. 
• 2013: New Gender Pay Transparency Regulations are expected to be passed, if the Government finds that employers have not acted sufficiently to reduce the pay gap between men and women.For a free consultation on the above or any employment matter, please contact one of our solicitors on (Switchboard) 08458 678 978 or via email to office@acumenbusinesslaw.co.uk