Legal update from RCN Director of Legal Services, Chris Cox
The Equality Bill 2009
The Equality Bill 2009, published by the Government last month, aims to consolidate all the discrimination legislation into one Act of Parliament. This will bring together legislation from 1970 onwards, in a more accessible form. The Bill also makes some changes to the existing law, though the impact of some of these remains in doubt. These include:
- An extension of the obligations placed on public sector bodies to promote equality of opportunity in three additional areas: religion, sexual orientation and age. Currently the duties apply only to race, disability and sex.
- A new duty on certain public authorities, including NHS bodies to consider 'socio-economic disadvantage', when taking strategic decisions about how to exercise their functions.
- Employment tribunals will be able to require an employer who has lost a discrimination claim to take certain steps to remedy matters not just for the benefit of the individual, but also for the wider workforce. This may be useful where the claimant is no longer working for the employer.
- Organisations with more than 250 employees will be encouraged to publish details about their gender pay gap. This will be voluntary in the first instance but may be made compulsory if information is not published. Gagging clauses in contracts preventing staff from sharing information about pay will also be outlawed.
- An employer, service provider or other organisation may take positive action to enable customers, existing or potential employees overcome or minimise a disadvantage arising from a 'protected characteristic' (e.g. race, gender, sexual orientation, disability etc). In employment this will only allow an employer to choose a candidate from a disadvantaged group where the group of candidates are equally qualified for the job.