Equality Act Naseem Anwar Equality and Diversity Unit

Transcription

1 Equality Act 2010 Naseem Anwar Equality and Diversity Unit

2 Corporate and Individual Responsibility Responsibility includes: Moral Social Legal holding people responsible for their actions the principle that organisations should contribute to the welfare of society effectively discharging duties as prescribed by law

3 UK Equalities Legislation 1970 Equal Pay Act 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act 1975 Sex Discrimination Act 1976 Race Relations Act 1995 Disability Discrimination Act 1998 Human Rights Act 2000 Race Relations Amendment Act (RRAA) (Race Equality Duty) 2001 The Special Educational Needs & Disability Act (SENDA) 2003 Race Relations Act 1976 (Amendment) Regulations 2003 Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations/ (Amendment) Regulations Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations/ (Amendment) Regulations The Gender Recognition Act 2004 The Civil Partnership Act 2005 The Employment Equality (Sex Discrimination) Regulations 2005 The Disability Discrimination Act (Disability Equality Duty) 2006 Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 The Equality Act (Gender Equality Duty) 2006 Work and Families Act 2010 The Equality Act

4 The Equality Act 2010 The Act streamlines existing equalities legislation by bringing disability, sex, race and other grounds of discrimination within one piece of legislation. The Act does not apply to Northern Ireland. The Equality Act introduces new terminology/ concept of protected characteristics which widen the scope of the six existing equality strands. (Additional areas covered highlighted in blue font) Age Disability Gender reassignment Marriage and civil partnership Race Religion or Belief Sex Sexual orientation Pregnancy and maternity

5 Equality Duties The Act places general and specific duties on public authorities. General Duty The Act places a new single duty[1] (due to come into force in April 2011) on public authorities to: eliminate discrimination and prevent harassment promote equality of opportunity foster good relations between diverse groups consider reducing socioeconomic inequalities (applies to relevant authorities e.g. local authority and health) [1] applies to all protected characteristics other than marriage/ civil partnership.

6 Equality Duties Specific Duty The new overarching general duty will be supplemented by specific duties. As with the three existing duties (on disability, gender and race), this is likely to involve the publication of equality schemes and monitoring statistics. It is anticipated that public sector bodies with more than 150 employees will have to publish annual details of their gender pay gap, their ethnic minority employment rate and their disability employment rate. The Act places an obligation to factor equality considerations into procurement processes.

7 New provisions in the Act Age discrimination outside the workplace Ban on pre-employment health questionnaires Change to definition of gender reassignment Discrimination arising from disability Duel discrimination (e.g. gender and race) Duty regarding socio-economic inequalities Extended powers of tribunals (to make recommendations even where the complainant won t benefit) Extension in coverage relating to private members clubs Extension of discrimination by association and perception Extension of positive action

8 New provisions in the Act Gender pay publishing Increasing diversity in political parties (Time Limited to 2030) Pregnancy and maternity protection extended to schools Protection in school for trans children Public sector equality duty Reasonable adjustment duty extended in relation to schools Reasonable adjustments to common parts of rented homes Removal of prohibition on civil partnerships in religious premises Right to make regulations in regard to caste discrimination Third party harassment (where an employee is harassed by third parties on at least 3 occasions and the employer fails to act)

9 Concepts The Equality Act retains the familiar concepts of direct and indirect discrimination, victimisation and harassment. Direct discrimination occurs if an employer discriminates against an employee because of a protected characteristic, whether or not the employee possesses that characteristic (except in the case of marital status or civil partnership). It will be unlawful to discriminate against employees because of their connection with someone else who possesses a protected characteristic (such as an employer treats a white employee less favourably because she has a black boyfriend), or because they are mistakenly perceived to possess a protected characteristic (for example, where an employee is treated less favourably because his colleagues think he is gay when in fact he is not). This is sometimes called discrimination by association or perception.

10 Concepts Indirect discrimination makes it unlawful to apply a provision, criterion or practice which is discriminatory in relation to one of the protected Characteristics but not to pregnancy and maternity). This the first occasion where scope of indirect discrimination is applied to disability and gender reassignment. Harassment - employers can already be held liable for the sexual harassment of their employees by a third party (for example, someone outside their organisation). The Act extends liability for third-party harassment to all protected characteristics (other than pregnancy/ maternity and marriage/ civil partnerships) where the employer has failed to take reasonable steps to prevent it, and provided the employer knows that the employee has experienced third-party harassment on at least two prior occasions.

11 Concepts Victimisation - this definition broadly reflects the existing provisions. It is unlawful to subject someone to a detriment because they have brought proceedings under the Equality Act, given evidence or information in connection with proceedings under the Equality Act, done any other thing for the purposes of or in connection with the Equality Act or alleged that the employer or another person has contravened the Equality Act.

12 Concepts Two completely new types of discrimination are introduced by the Equality Act 2010: Combined discrimination - this will allow claims to be brought by employees who have been directly discriminated against because of a combination of two protected characteristics such as sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, religion/ belief or gender reassignment. However, claimants cannot bring combined discrimination claims involving pregnancy/ maternity or marriage/ civil partnership. Detriment arising from disability - this replaces the concept of disability-related discrimination. It occurs when employers treat employees in a detrimental way because of something that is a consequence of their disability. A typical example would be dismissing employees with poor attendance records when their absences were caused by disability. This would be unlawful unless dismissal could be justified as a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim or the employer could not reasonably have been expected to know of the disability.

13 Timeline for implementation Equality Act Employment, Equal pay and Services, public functions and associations Education (further and higher education) Comes into force in October 2010 October 2010 October 2010 Education (schools): auxiliary aids and service provisions The integrated public sector Equality Duty, the Socio-economic Duty and dual discrimination protection Ban on age discrimination extended to provision of goods, facilities, services and public functions April 2011 April 2011 April 2012 Private and voluntary sector gender pay transparency regulations (if required) and political parties publishing diversity data 2013