Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Employment lawEquality, diversity and inclusion

Equality Bill 2009 – legal Q&A

by Personnel Today 5 May 2009
by Personnel Today 5 May 2009

The Equality Bill 2009, published last month, is the government’s as attempt to consolidate all the nation’s discrimination legislation and to give it one home.

Given that we are looking at 40-years’ worth of piecemeal legislation that is a significant undertaking. But, not content with that, the government hopes to push through a number of reforms.

Of these, the two most significant are extending the obligations of public sector organisations to promote equality of opportunity, and widening the ambit of the age discrimination legislation to cover goods and services.

Q What are the main implications for employers?

A The core obligations of private sector employers will not change significantly, because most of the Bill’s considerable bulk is taken up with re-stating the law in a more logical and accessible form. Public sector employers are likely to be considerably affected by extending the scope of the public sector equality duties to cover three additional discrimination strands: religion, sexual orientation and age.

The exact details of these duties are still not known, but they are likely to be modelled on the obligations that already apply in relation to race, disability and sex.

The increased prominence of equality issues in the public sector is already having a knock-on effect for businesses working in partnership with it. This is likely to be accelerated if the Bill becomes law in its present form.

Q What about equal pay?

A At one point it was thought that the gvernment would introduce compulsory equal pay audits for private sector organisations. That idea has been dropped.

Instead the Bill includes a provision to encourage private sector organisations with at more than 250 employees to publish details about their gender pay gap. The hope is that organisations will do this on a voluntary basis.

Current Government policy is that employers will have until 2013 to do this, and the Bill contains a power to make the publication of this information compulsory if insufficient progress has been made by then.

Another suggestion is to improve trnsparency by outlawing gagging clauses in contracts of employment, which prevent employees from sharing information about their pay. Such clauses are not commonly found, so it is unclear how much difference this will make in practice.

The government has resisted other calls to make equal pay legislation more employee-friendly. The net result is that most provisions of the Equal Pay Act have been transferred into the Bill unchanged. At the risk of oversimplifying things, this looks like a success for the business lobby. A longer-term view might be that by not tackling equal pay issues now, employers are storing up problems for the future.

Q Will positive action be allowed?

A This is another topic that has had a great deal of media coverage, but the proposals in the Bill are quite limited. n the employment field it will only be allowed as a tie-breaker when selecting from a group of equally qualified candidates. In such circumstances, employers will be able to choose the candidate from a disadvantaged group.

Q Will employees who are carers have increased protection?

A The new general definition of discrimination will protect employees who are directly discriminated against, not because of their own characteristics, but because of those of a person with whom they are associated – for example a disabled relative for whom they are caring. This is probably a clarification rather than a change in the law, because a recent decision of the European Court of Justice has said that the concept of discrimination in EU law – with which the UK must comply – covers associative discrimination.

Q When will the Bill’s provisions come into effect?

A The government hopes the Bill will receive Royal Assent in Spring 2010, with the majority of its provisions taking effect in October next year. Some provisions, like the new public equality duty, will come into force in 2011.

If, as seems likely, the next general election is held in May 2010, this is an ambitious timetable for such a complicated piece of legislation.

Q Where can I find out more?

A The Bill is sponsored by the Equalities Office, although a great many other departments have been involved in its preparation. Copies of the Bill, and a great deal more, can be accessed from its dedicated web page at http://www.equalities.gov.uk/equality_bill.aspx. Rather than tackling the Bill itself (which, with explanatory notes, runs to over 500 pages) the best place to start is the introductory paper: “A Fairer Future”.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Opposition condemns Equality Bill

Equality Bill won’t allow firms an ‘amnesty’ on equal pay gaps

Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

previous post
Finalists shortlisted for cHeRries Awards
next post
Job satisfaction on the up despite economic downturn

You may also like

Fire and rehire: the relocation question

22 May 2025

Fewer workers would comply with a return-to-office mandate

21 May 2025

Redefining leadership: From competence to inclusion

21 May 2025

Consultation launched after Supreme Court ‘sex’ ruling

20 May 2025

Minister defends Employment Rights Bill at Acas conference

16 May 2025

CBI chair Soames accuses ministers of not listening...

16 May 2025

EHRC bows to pressure and extends gender consultation

15 May 2025

Culture, ‘micro-incivilities’ and invisible talent

14 May 2025

Contract cleaner loses EAT race discrimination appeal

14 May 2025

Why fighting the DEI backlash is about PR...

9 May 2025

  • 2025 Employee Communications Report PROMOTED | HR and leadership...Read more
  • The Majority of Employees Have Their Eyes on Their Next Move PROMOTED | A staggering 65%...Read more
  • Prioritising performance management: Strategies for success (webinar) WEBINAR | In today’s fast-paced...Read more
  • Self-Leadership: The Key to Successful Organisations PROMOTED | Eletive is helping businesses...Read more
  • Retaining Female Talent: Four Ways to Reduce Workplace Drop Out PROMOTED | International Women’s Day...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+