In Committee on Tuesday the first amendments were made to the Equality Bill. The provisions referring to ‘less favourable’ treatment in relation to pregnancy and maternity were changed to refer to ‘unfavourable’ treatment. The idea is to remove the need for any comparator in pregnancy cases to comply with ECJ rulings. See the full list of proceedings here
Archive for June, 2009
The Equality Bill started its clause by clause consideration in Commons committee yesterday. So far the Committee has agreed to the first five clauses without amendment - although there was a division on Clause 1 which is the new public sector duty relating to socio-economic disadvantage.
200 clauses to go…
…well sort of
On a first reading it seems as though the House of Lords was only asked to deal with the issue of whether a failure to pay holiday was an unlawful deduction from wages under the Employment Rights Act or a claim to be made under the Working Time Regulations. They held that it was an unlawful deduction which means that a series of non-payments can be the subject of a tribunal claim even if it stretches back years.
What was not decided as far as I can see is how to apply the ECJ judgment which allowed for two possible interpretations of the holiday provisions. Under one interpretation holiday can be taken during sickness absence. Under the other approach holiday cannot be taken during sickness absence but must be allowed when the employee returns - even if that means carrying over the full holiday entitlement into subsequent holiday years. It seems that the parties were no longer in dispute about this before the House of Lords. This leaves a bit of uncertainty in the law which will have to be picked up in future cases.
You can read the full decision here
