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New Equality Act 2010
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Posted in Employers on Oct 04, 2010 by Richard Hayden
Below we have listed various aspects of Discrimination and their protected characteristics. This is not an exhaustive list but what we feel are some of the salient points which may affect employers:
Associative Discrimination
You can't discriminate against someone because they associate with someone who has a protected characteristic.
Covers: race; religion or belief; sexual orientation; age; disability; gender reassignment and sex.
Perceptive Discrimination
You can't discriminate against a person because you or one of your employees thinks they have a protected characteristic.
Covers: race; religion or belief; sexual orientation; age; disability; gender reassignment and sex.
Indirect
You can't have a rule, policy or practice which applies to all employees which particularly disadvantages people who share a protected characteristic. This is opposed to direct discrimination where someone is treated less favourably because they have or are thought to have a protected characteristic.
Covers: race; religion or belief; sexual orientation; age; disability; gender reassignment; sex and marriage or civil partnership.
Third Party Harassment
Now you are potentially liable for harassment caused by individuals who are not employees of your company, but only if it has occurred on at least 2 previous occasions
Disability
You can’t treat a person unfavourably because of something connected with a disability e.g. spelling mistakes due to dyslexia. It is now unlawful to enquire about the Health of an employee or candidate unless certain circumstances are present.
Gender Re-assignment
There is protection for transsexual people and the individual is no longer required to be under medical supervision to be protected. Transgender people such as cross dressers who are not transsexual are not protected.
Equal Pay
Previously a real comparator had to be found in the organisation to claim for Equal Pay, this is no longer the case. If a real comparator does not exist the claimant needs to provide evidence that they would have had better pay/benefits if they had been a different sex.
Pay Secrecy
It is now unlawful to prevent or restrict an employee establishing if pay differences do exist, any contractual terms requiring secrecy are now unlawful.
Do You Comply?
Changes in employment law such as the Equality Act may mean that you need to review / revise the following as a basic list. You may have other HR/employee documents, policies or practices which need to be amended as well but these are a good starting point:
- Contract of employment
- Employee Handbook
- Equal Opportunities Policy
- Dignity at Work/Anti-harassment/Anti-discrimination policies
- Customer Service Policy/Quality Policy
- Health and Safety Documentation
- Health Questionnaires and policy
- Recruitment and selection policies and practices
- Review your pay structure for obvious inconsistencies
- Train your managers
- Advise your employees
Further information about the 2010 Equality Act can be found at www.equalities.gov.uk/equality_act_2010.aspx
At Key Appointments we want to supply you with relevant and useful information, if there are topics you would like more information on then please email us at info@key-appointments.co.uk
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