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.
By and large, employment law solicitors have welcomed the introduction of the act, which will take place in October because there was a widely held belief that simplification was urgently needed. 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. Employers will no longer be able to use contractual clauses which bar employees from discussing their salary and bonuses. 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. By ‘protected characteristics,’ the law means age, race, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, religion or disability.
Employment law solicitors are also please with the implementation of legislation allowing employees to claim discrimination on more than one protected characteristic. The spectrum of discrimination law will also be broadened to outlaw discrimination on the grounds of a person’s association with a person with a 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.~ The law relating to discrimination will also be extended to include discrimination against individuals based on their association with someone with a protected characteristic.} For example treating an employee unfavourably on account of them having a disabled child would be illegal. Similarly, it will also be illegal to discriminate against a person who is wrongly assumed to have a protected characteristic.
These are just some of the provisions of the new law. There will be many other changes and employment law solicitors will be able to advise on incorporating the law into the workplace. Employment law solicitors are urging people to review their policies and procedures now to ensure compliance in October.
Tags:employment law solicitors,equality act
Tags: 
