A landmark Race Equality Act, better support for women in the workplace, and mandatory disability pay gap reporting for big businesses, are some of Labour Party’s equality reforms it would enact if it were to win the next general election.
Speaking at the Labour Party Conference yesterday, Anneliese Dodds, shadow women and equalities minister, said that it would act to undo the “damage of the last 13 years, to break down barriers to opportunity and root out inequality wherever we see it”.
Dodds said: “The Tories have stood by as inequality has soared. Only Labour will stand up and do something about it, with a mission to deliver the highest sustained growth in the G7 so that everyone can reach their full potential, with a new deal that will transform the rights of working people.
“With action to support women experiencing menopause, tackle the gender pay gap and boost businesses led by women and ethnic minority people. We’ll protect the right to equal pay by enshrining the ‘single source test’ in UK law – rights the Tories only promised to keep after Labour challenged them on it.”
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In August, Labour accused the government of a U-turn after it announced that equal pay protections that were to be revoked under the Retained EU Law Act were to be safeguarded with new legislation.
EU law includes the principle of equal pay for equal work for men and women even if they work in different locations or the work is outsourced to a separate company, the so-called “single source test”.
Dodds also said that Labour is determined to break down barriers to opportunity for disabled people. “We will honour our commitments to the UN Convention for the Rights of Disabled People, bring in mandatory disability pay gap reporting for big businesses, reform access to work and act to make it simpler to secure reasonable adjustments,” she said.
She continued: “We’ll break down barriers to opportunity by embedding equality at the heart of everything government does, genuinely assessing the impact of new policies on equality, and defending the Equality Act from Conservative attack.
“The last Labour government did more to advance equality than any in history. The next will finish the job and break new ground by tackling the inequalities we face today. Like the structural racism that scars our society, leaving Black, Asian and ethnic minority families worse off, in poorer health and bearing the brunt of the cost of living crisis.
“The Conservatives don’t even think there’s a problem – they deny structural racism even exists. Only Labour has a plan to tackle it at source, with a new, landmark Race Equality Act.”
Labour’s Race Equality Act, first announced in 2020, includes plans to tackle the disproportionately low rates of pay experienced by ethnic minorities and organisations not acting on pay data could be fined.
On Saturday, at the Labour Party Women’s Conference, Dodds also announced that Labour would enact Section 106 of the Equality Act which would require political parties to publish data on the diversity of their candidates for election.
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