Government sets out new Equality agenda
The Coalition government set out its strategy for Equality
today, saying it wants to move away from “defining people simply
because they’ve ticked a box on a form”. The Equality Strategy
gives a good indication of the new government’s thinking on
equality going forward and the change in tone from the previous
government’s thinking is significant.
Among the headlines are:
- Scrapping the “socio-economic” equality duty on public
authorities, contained in the Equality Act;
- introducing the “positive discrimination” provisions in the
Equality Act – which will give employers the opportunity to favour
an equally well-qualified minority candidate over other candidates
in recruitment and promotion exercises - from April 2011.
The Strategy says that “legislation is not a panacea” and to
illustrate this, businesses will not now be subject to any legal
duty to publish equal pay data – a voluntary scheme will apply
instead, applying particularly to employers with 150 or more
employees.
Also of interest to employers, the government will extend the
right to request flexible working arrangements to all employees,
not just to those with childcare or other caring responsibilities.
This will remove a frequent cause for complaint by workers without
children or dependants that they are discriminated against because
they currently do not have the legal right to request flexible
working arrangements.
Commenting on the Strategy, Nick Soret of RBS Mentor Employment
Law & HR said:
“The government’s first six months has been bogged down with
dealing with the deficit. The Equality Strategy is one of the first
opportunities the coalition has had to put forward its vision of a
new way forward for equality in the workplace. The clear agenda is
for no more legislation and to move away from an approach that,
although well-intentioned, can be divisive. Small businesses are
likely to welcome it as a breath of fresh air, as much for the
language it uses as for what it says”