Employment Law Solicitors: Prepare Now for The Equality Act
In Identity Theft of CreditGuru (September 9, 2010 3:29 am)
The government, equality campaigners and employment law solicitors have all welcomed the Equality Act as a giant leap towards stronger discrimination law and the simplification of pre-existing legislation.
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. Some employment law solicitors felt that previously complex legislation was actually hindering progress towards greater equality rather than helping it.
Most of the provisions of the act will become law in October 2010 and employment law solicitors are keen for employers to be aware of the changes to come. The general advice is to ensure that companies are prepared or the new changes.
From October it will be illegal for businesses to ask job candidates questions relating to their health if it is unrelated to the job. 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. ‘Protected characteristics’ are sex, age, race or national origin, sexual orientation, religion or belief and 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.} This means that treating an employee unfavourably because of the religion of their partner 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. It is the advice of most firms of employment law solicitors that now is the time for employers to review their equality policy and check over their recruitment process so that failure to comply is not an issue in October.
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