Anti-Discrimination law changes ahead
The Coalition Government has announced this week that they pledge to implement the new Equality Act 2010 in October this year as was originally planned. We have taken this opportunity to speak with mhl support’s Employment Law Compliance Officer, Brendan Wincott who has explained more to us what this new legislation will mean for employers.
There has been much recent speculation at whether this new legislation would be implemented as originally planned by the Labour Government in October 2010. This became particularly so when the Government Equalities Office removed their previous reference to the implementation date of October. However, despite this, we still look set to see this implemented in October 2010 as confirmed by the Home Secretary, Theresa May in a recent news release.
We have taken this opportunity to speak with mhl support’s Employment Law Compliance Officer, Brendan Wincott who has explained more to us what this new legislation will mean for employers.
Brendan explained that “The main purpose behind the legislation is to consolidate the vast anti-discrimination legislation that the UK presently has in force, bringing all this together into one Act of Parliament.”
When we asked Brendan if there was anything new being brought in by this legislation, Brendan responded that “Yes, we will see a few further additions which are intended to further overcome inequality in the workplace. In particular, employers can expect to see discrimination based on perception and association clarified and extended, and also a much clearer recognition of discrimination on more than one ground.
Additionally, we are going to see positive discrimination allowed for, that is treating someone more favourably because of a protected characteristic, particularly in recruitment processes, and we are also going to wave goodbye to a lot of pre-employment health questionnaires which are set to become unlawful under the new provisions.
We are also going to see increased powers for tribunal judges when making awards in discrimination cases, mainly in the area of awards making recommendations. Equal pay is also an area set to be tackled by the new legislation, with provision being made available for the implementation of a pay publishing duty on employers who employ 250 or more staff where there are apparent pay differences between men and women.”
When speaking more specifically about the equal pay provisions, Brendan also explained that “We are also set to see provisions preventing employees from discussing their pay details with colleagues become void, allowing employees to freely discuss their pay amongst work colleagues.”
There are a lot of important considerations for employers to make in order to plan for the implementation of the Equality Act 2010, not least reviewing recruitment practices and pay structures for the larger organisations. mhl has a team of specialist and experienced advisers who are able to tell you more about these new provisions. If you are an existing client, please call one of the team today on 08453 100 999 quoting your PCN number. If you are not already a client, but are interested in learning more about the services mhl provide, please call Katy Vaughan today on 08453 100 600 for your free no obligation quote.
This News Release is intended to provide a general overview and discussion of the subject matter. It is not however, intended to give advice or to act as a substitute to taking legal advice from our Support Line in any specific situation. Mhl accepts no liability or responsibility for the information contained within this news release. If you would like specific advice about this subject matter, please contact one of the Employment Law Team today on 08453 100 999.
