Equality Act – what’s new?

posted: 16/04/2010

The Equality Act assembles in one place all the various anti-discrimination laws introduced over the last 40 years. Its big ambition is to simplify and standardise the law to make it easier for people to understand. It’s not just tidying-up a mess of different laws because the Equality Act adds many new rights and remedies.
 

Disability
It is now be unlawful to ask invasive questions about disability and health before any job is offered. This is particularly important for those with mental health or other conditions involving social stigma, such as HIV. After the job-offer stage, an employer can ask these questions, in order to consider whether any specific adaptations will be necessary. However, if an individual finds that his or her job offer is withdrawn after disclosing HIV/disability, he or she will be able to claim compensation for disability discrimination. It is assumed the employer discriminated unless s/he proves that withdrawing the job offer was not discrimination.
 

Sexual orientation and religion
The new Equality law also covers providing goods and services to consumers. So a B&B refusing a gay couple, a Catholic adoption agency refusing to help a gay couple will all be unlawful discrimination.
 

October start

These and other changes will be the law from early October.
 

Source

EU Warns UK on Equality

posted: 14/12/2009

The government faces legal action by the European Commission for not doing enough to protect people from discrimination at work. This threatens the Equalities Bill now going through Parliament.
 

The European commission says parts of UK law, including provisions on sexual orientation and disability, are inadequate. They fail to properly implement several Equalities Directions signed unanimously by European countries way back in 2002. The EU could take the UK government to the European court of justice.
 

Sexuality : fail
The EU sent the government two official opinions last month, and these include a warning that the law that applies to faith-based organisations, schools and adoption agencies allows far too much discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation.
"This could be difficult for the government," said Robin Allen QC, head of Cloisters chambers. "The extent to which religious organisations are exempt from the rules of sexual orientation discrimination is a particularly difficult issue. The government will certainly resist any strengthening to the current law in an election year."
 

HIV Class Actions missed : fail
Other parts of UK law singled out by the EU's equal opportunities commissioner include the lack of a ban on "instructions to discriminate", where a person is discriminated against because of the actions of a third party, and the lack of clear provisions for class actions. Class actions are an important right, particularly for stigmatised groups like people with HIV, who are often very reluctant to make formal complaints. Organisations, like George House Trust, should be able to take class actions on behalf of a group of people to challenge illegal discrimination.
 

"The government has kept promising to address group claims and, as a matter of good practice, lawyers have been saying it should happen. But no one had picked up that failing to do so would breach the EC directive – this came as a total surprise," said Rachel Harfield, an employment law solicitor at Russell Jones & Walker.

UK only EU state to fail on equalities
Last month, the long-awaited equality bill was included in the Queen's speech for a second year and was presumed to be compliant with EU requirements. News of the warning from the commission means the UK is the only European country to have failed to implement two key EU directives on discrimination.
 

"This directive was agreed unanimously by all EU countries in 2002 but, to be effective, it needs to be fully and correctly transposed into national law," said Vladimir Spidla, EU commissioner for equal opportunities. "We call on the UK government to make the necessary changes to its gender equality legislation as soon as possible so as to fully comply with the EU rules."
 

Two months to answer
The government has two months to respond. The general election has to be held within the next six months and Parliament has to finish all business about a month before the election. A spokesman for the government's Equalities Office said: "We take our European legal obligations seriously. We will be studying the reasoned opinions carefully and will reply to the commission in the new year. The equality bill will be continuing its progress through parliament during the fifth session."
 

The criticism will embarrass the government. The bill, which replaces nine existing laws and more than 100 other measures, was intended to end this patchwork mess with a single law.
 

"One of the criticisms of the existing equality legislation is that there are too many pieces of legislation," said Harfield. "The equality bill is supposed to be a consolidation – the last thing the government would want is to introduce an equality bill as it stands, and then have to introduce new legislation further down the line. That would make a mockery of what the bill is supposed to do."
 

Multiple discriminations : Fail

Experts have welcomed many of the bill's provisions, but some see it as a "missed opportunity" for failing to develop the law on equal pay or to allow claims with more than two grounds. This is another issue that affects people with HIV. Many people with HIV tick several equality boxes and discrimination may be because of HIV (disability), sexuality, ethnicity, and gender. Often discrimination may be for more than one of these reasons, but to make a claim at present you can only pick one. That choice is a gamble and Europe says there is no need for this.
 

Allen said: "One of the biggest issues with the equality bill is the attempt to redraw the lines between gay people and evangelicals – there will be concerns that any further demands for changes could interfere with the legislative process."
 

Source

HIV Social Care Personalisation

posted: 08/12/2009

The Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) wants people to know about the plans for ‘personalisation’ of social care, and that the people who need and want this can obtain it. This includes gay men with HIV - in North West England they are working on a pilot involving George House Trust and LGF (lesbian and gay foundation), Merseyside Disability Federation, Breakthrough UK, Voluntary Sector North West.
 

What’s personalisation?
Personalisation aims to transform public services. The idea is to empower and help people using social care services to make choices and take control of their support. It is so people can live their lives as they wish, with the support of high quality services that are safe, tailored to meet individual needs and facilitate independence, wellbeing and dignity.
 

There are various versions of personalisation – it includes systems known as “Direct Payments”, “Self-Directed Support”, and “In Control”.
 

For people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, personalisation should mean fair and equal access to services to meet your specific needs, promote your independence and autonomy, and enable you to achieve your full potential.
The first step is a survey of organisations asking What’s happening already - organisations are asked to complete the survey 
 

Focus Groups
The ECHR will hold some focus groups across the region with gay people with disabilities (such as people with HIV) to ask their opinions and thoughts about how they use social care services. More details will be available soon.
 

More information
For more information about this study, please contact Peter Bates or Sian Payne