The Equality Act 2010 replaces nine laws and more than a 100 regulations to make it easier for employers to understand discrimination legislation.
The Act applies to England, Scotland and Wales and its provisions being implemented in stages commencing from this October 2010.
The Act will harmonise and extend discrimination law to cover existing forms of discrimination identifying nine 'protected characteristics'. They are:
- age,
- disability,
- gender reassignment,
- marriage and civil partnership,
- pregnancy and maternity,
- race,
- religion or belief,
- sex,
- sexual orientation.
The key employment-related measures in the Act include:
- Banning secrecy clauses in employment contracts which prevent people discussing their own pay.
- Employers of over 250 people will have to report on their gender pay gaps from 2013 if not enough progress has been made voluntarily
- Public authorities with over 150 employees will be required from 2011 to publish annual details of their pay gap and ethnic minority and disability employment rates.
- Extending positive action so that employers can take into account when selecting between two equally qualified job candidates, the underrepresentation of disadvantaged groups. This would expand existing positive action rules relating to training or encouragement to take up certain types of work and would have to be justified by an employer as a proportionate way of achieving the relevant aim.
- Placing a new broader, single equality duty on public authorities which will extend to all protected characteristics, except marriage and civil partnership.
- Introducing a new duty on public authorities to consider reducing socio-economic inequalities.
- Allowing tribunals to make wider recommendations in discrimination cases, not only benefiting the individual, but also the wider workforce where the discrimination has taken place.
- Making tribunal judgments available and searchable online so that recommendations will be made public.
- Introducing a new definition of direct discrimination across all the protected characteristics to cover both 'associative' and 'perceived' discrimination and replaces the phrase 'on the grounds of' with the word 'because'. This will bring the law into line with Coleman v Attridge Law.
- Extending indirect discrimination across all the protected characteristics, except pregnancy and maternity.
- Pregnancy or maternity-related treatment would only be discriminatory if the treatment of the employee is ‘unfavourable’.
- Extending employers' liability for third party harassment beyond sexual harassment to other protected characteristics.
- Harmonising the definition of harassment to cover ‘associative’ and ‘perceived’ harassment.
- Harmonising the concept of justification in discrimination cases ‘as a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim’.
- Introducing an ‘occupational requirement’ defence across all protected characteristics and removing the ‘genuine occupational qualifications’ (GOQs) in sex, gender reassignment and race cases.
- Addresses the Malcom decision by replacing the concept of 'disability-related discrimination' with the new concepts of indirect discrimination and 'discrimination arising from disability.'
- The test for establishing whether a person has a disability will be widened.
- Differences between discrimination based on nationality and colour and discrimination on other racial grounds in the Race Relations Act 1976 are removed.
- Discrimination on grounds of caste could be made illegal if there is a problem.
- Changing the definition of gender reassignment discrimination by removing the need for a person to be under medical supervision to come under it.
- Allowing claims for multiple discrimination based on two, but no more, different types of discrimination. Marriage and civil partnership and pregnancy and maternity are not included.
- Banning pre-employment questionnaires
- Ensuring that age discrimination covers organisations providing goods, facilities and services and carrying out public services as well as in the employment sector.
- Ensuring that public bodies promote equality through their purchasing function.