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+

Personnel Today

Is your HR strategy fit for the era of equality?

by Personnel Today 29 Jan 2002
by Personnel Today 29 Jan 2002

A raft of new legislation concerning equality at work should act as a wake-up
call to employers to review their equal op policies

In April last year Denise Kingsmill was appointed by the Government to carry
out an independent review of women’s employment and pay.

While Kingsmill’s recommendation to make pay audits a legal obligation for
employers was dismissed by the Government, her proposal that employees be told
if they are receiving the same pay as a named colleague, has been taken up.
This has led to the new Employment Bill including a statutory equal pay
questionnaire as the first stage in an equal pay claim.

So, can employers forget about equal pay audits for the time being? The
strict legal answer is ‘yes’, but there are several reasons why employers
should take a strategic approach and consider equal pay as just one of many
elements in an equal opportunities review.

Equal pay

A number of organisations including the CIPD, the EOC and the TUC will be
championing the issue of equal pay.

New super-union Amicus aims to ask every UK company in its sectors to commit
to equal pay audits, and by the end of 2002 it will produce a list of equal pay
refuseniks.

The TUC plans to train 500 equal pay reps to tackle the gap between men and
women’s pay. The EOC has set a target for 50 per cent of large employers (those
with more than 500 employees) to have carried out a pay review by the end of
2003, and 25 per cent of the remaining employers by the end of 2005.

The Sex Discrimination (Indirect Discrimination and Burden of Proof)
Regulations 2001, have widened the scope of indirect discrimination to include
not just terms and conditions of employment but also ‘provisions, criteria and
practices’ (see In On The Act, right). This will offer employees the
opportunity to have pay policies closely examined.

Employment tribunals are already demonstrating greater scrutiny of
employers’ equality practice, looking in particular at management training.

Legal requirements

– Public sector employers have extended duties on race relations. The Race
Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 (effective April 2001) imposes a general duty to
promote racial equality by eliminating unlawful discrimination and by providing
equality of opportunity.

– The CRE has recently issued for consultation a draft Code of Practice and
non-statutory guides for schools, institutions of further and higher education
and public authorities, together with a separate guide for public authorities
on ethnic monitoring. The consultation period ends on 28 February and the final
code will be issued in May 2002. However, public authorities must have their
plans in place for meeting the requirements by 31 May 2002.

– The Employment Bill 2001 provides for changes to family-friendly law to
take effect in 2003, including new rights for paid paternity leave, paid and
unpaid adoption leave, an extension of maternity leave entitlements and
increased rates of statutory maternity pay and allowances.

– The DTI has set out proposals (to be effective in 2003) to encourage
flexible work arrangements (see In On The Act, right).

– Under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, the exemption for businesses
with fewer than 15 employees, and previously exempt public sector bodies, will
be removed from 2004.

– The Employment (Framework) Directive will outlaw discrimination on grounds
of religion or belief (2003) age (2006) and sexual orientation (2003).

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.

This is an intimidating raft of legislation, but the practical approach is
for employers to review their HR policies in the light of existing requirements
and pending changes, rather than looking at each requirement in a piecemeal
fashion.

By Nigel Youngman, director of HR consultancy at Eversheds

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
HSE launches new investigation criteria
next post
Pearson sets out to let its young blood have a say

You may also like

Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders receive 400% pay rise

4 Jul 2025

FCA to extend misconduct rules beyond banks

2 Jul 2025

‘Decisive action’ needed to boost workers’ pensions

2 Jul 2025

Business leaders’ drop in confidence impacts headcount

2 Jul 2025

Why we need to rethink soft skills in...

1 Jul 2025

Five misconceptions about hiring refugees

20 Jun 2025

Forward features list 2025 – submitting content to...

23 Nov 2024

Features list 2021 – submitting content to Personnel...

1 Sep 2020

Large firms have no plans to bring all...

26 Aug 2020

A typical work-from-home lunch: crisps

24 Aug 2020

  • Empowering working parents and productivity during the summer holidays SPONSORED | Businesses play a...Read more
  • AI is here. Your workforce should be ready. SPONSORED | From content creation...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+