Employment Law Solicitors: Prepare Now For The Equality Act
The Equality Act 2010 has been hailed by employment law solicitors, the government and equality campaigners as a huge step in bringing together all discrimination legislation, making discrimination law stronger and supporting equality.
Employment law solicitors are welcoming the forthcoming introduction of the new law, because there was a feeling among many that streamlining the previous legislation needed to be a priority. Indeed, many employment law solicitors expressed concerns that existing legislation is actually a hindrance to equality.
For the most part, the act will come into force in October and employment law solicitors want everyone to be aware of the changes. The advice is to prepare now before it’s too late.
From October, employers will not be able to ask job candidates questions relating to their health if it is unrelated to the job role. It will be illegal for employers to use contractual clauses to bar their employees from discussing their salary. And in cases where two equal applicants are found and one has a protected characteristic which is uner-represented, the employer will have the option to favour that candidate. The term ‘protected characteristic’ covers age, sex, religious beliefs, sexuality, nationality, race and disability.
Employment law solicitors are also please with the implementation of legislation allowing employees to claim discrimination on more than one protected characteristic. Discrimination law will be expanded to protect individuals from discrimination on the basis of their association with a person with a protected characteristic. This means that unfavourable treatment of a mother to a disabled child would be unlawful. Similarly, it will also be illegal to discriminate against a person who is wrongly assumed to have a protected characteristic.
These are some of the many areas covered by the new law. There are many other changes which will be brought in and which employment law solicitors can advise on. Employment law solicitors advice firms to review their equality policy and recruitment process now to avoid problems in October.
