The Lords Committee Stage of the Equality Bill has been making rapid progress and barring something dramatic happening it is clear that the Bill does now have time to make it onto the statute books. A number of amendments have been made – perhaps most notably a measure making it unlawful for employers to ask employees about their health prior to offering them a job unless the employer can show that the question is necessary to ensure safety, make adjustments or ensure that the employee is capable of performing key tasks.
Author Archive for DarrenN
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As someone planning to fly with BA on 23rd December I’m more than usually keen to know the basis on which BA is planning to challenge the industrial action in the courts – see the news story here.
The Equality Bill completed its Report Stage and Third Reading in the House of Commons today. It is now off to the House of Lords.
I haven’t been able to check all of the amendments that were made but the proceedings of the Bill published so far show the Government proposing two new clauses – which I presume were adopted.
The Report Stage of the Equality Bill has been listed for 2nd December. As yet we don’t seem to have any proposed Government amendments which is a bit worrying because some aspects of the Bill – particularly those dealing with disability – need some serious attention. The Government may be thinking that amendments are best brought during the Lords Committee stage after Christmas and that the priority for the remaining Commons stages is to get them over and done with. Things are very tight if the Bill is to pass before the next election.
It’s worth noting that there is still no date set for the next stages of the Equality Bill. We still need a Report and Third Reading in the Commons before the whole thing goes off to the Lords. This is getting really tight now – has the Government got the time (or the will) to push it through?
Today the Equality Commission publish a major report into the gender pay gap in the financial services industry. You can download and read the full report here.
To an extent pointing out the ways in which the industry discriminates against women is like shooting fish in a barrel, but I am still disappointed by the content of the report. While all of the headlines are about the gender pay gap, it is clear from the report that the key issue is occupational segregation. I don’t doubt that female hedge fund managers face a culture of discrimination, but too much of this report is about comparing male hedge fund managers with female admin workers or cashiers. Not enough account is taken of how a very few incredibly highly paid employees can distort the overall average.
The Equality Bill has – exactly as scheduled – completed its committee stage in the House of Commons. There were relatively few changes made but two stand out:
- pregnancy discrimination is altered to refer to unfavourable rather than less favourable treatment
- a new clause is inserted providing for multiple discrimination – ie where someone is treated less favourably because they combine two protected characteristics
I don’t think either of these will have a huge impact. In particular the multiple discrimination clause is based on a misunderstanding of how comparisons work in direct discrimination – but don’t get me started, I can bore for England on that one.
The Government has also undertaken to look again at the provisions on disability conceding that they may not be ‘as clear’ as they should. This is code for ‘we’ve made a mistake and need to correct it’. We can expect amended provisions at report stage.
I still think that the Government has slipped up over positive action. The clauses currently drafted will not work in practice and in some respects are actually narrower than the current rules. Surely someoen will notice this as the Bill progresses?
Next stage is Report in the Commons. No date set yet but it will be sometime in the Autumn as Parliament now breaks for the summer. The Bill is still on schedule – but its still very tight.
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
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
