New Law aims to make everyone equal

At the end of June, Harriet Harman, the Minister for Women and Equality, announced further details of the proposed Equality Bill. The proposals aim to bring faster progress towards "equality" than has been achieved by existing anti-discrimination legislation and, controversially, will include allowing employers to positively discriminate in favour of certain job applicants.

The Bill will progress through Parliament over the next year or so, and the proposals could be amended or watered-down before they become law. However, the main thrust remains to eliminate inequality, particularly in the workplace, rather than simply to eliminate discrimination.

Critics of the Bill say that matters such as a "pay gap" between certain workers - where women are paid on average less than men - can be explained by different career and work / life balance choices. They also say that to get equality of outcomes means discriminating against some people - for example, deliberately favouring a black job applicant over an equally well-qualified white job applicant, which the proposed law will allow, simply reverses discrimination and will lead to many more claims in Employment Tribunals. How, for instance, can an employer prove that both candidates were "equally well qualified"?

Particularly affected will be private sector employers doing business with the public sector. These employers are likely to have to show they have a workforce that accurately represents the make up of the communities they operate in, and if they do not, to operate positive discrimination policies to achieve that goal. The difficulties they will face are in the additional costs of operating such policies, including appropriate monitoring, auditing and reporting procedures, and in facing Tribunal claims as a result of heightened awareness of discrimination issues among job applicants.

What is clear is that there will be a significant shake-up of anti-discrimination law that will have an impact on employers, particularly those performing contracts for the public sector.

As the proposals are fleshed out over the coming months, Mentor will keep you informed of any action you need to take to protect your business.  In the meantime, if you have any HR queries, please call the Mentor Employment Law Advice Line on 0870 523 8473 or speak to your Employment Law Consultant direct.  Maximum call charge from a BT landline is 6p plus up to 6p per minute.  Business rates and calls from other networks may vary.