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Equality newsImpact of Sex Discrimination Act changesThe former Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) brought judicial review proceedings against the Government in relation to some of the provisions of the Employment Equality (Sex Discrimination) Regulations 2005 which amended the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 to implement the Equal Treatment (Amendment) Directive. The judgment of the Court handed down on 12 March 2007 requires Government to make some amendments to provisions in the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 on pregnancy and maternity leave discrimination and harassment. The regulations that will make these changes to the Sex Discrimination Act have been laid before Parliament and will come into effect on 6 April 2008:
Moderate approach to NMW welcomedThe CBI welcomed the announcement of the rate of the National Minimum Wage (NMW) for October 2008. The hourly rate will rise by 3.8% to £5.73 – which represents a sensible decision in light of the uncertain economic climate. CBI Deputy Director General John Cridland said, “Over the last few years the Low Pay Commission has taken the right stance by not increasing the minimum wage by more than the growth in average earnings, whilst also taking into account the prevailing economic climate and firms' ability to pay. At a time of considerable uncertainty for businesses and with economic growth already slowing, we welcome today’s moderate approach”. The CBI also recommended in its submission to the Low Pay Commission that this year should see a focus on enforcement of the wage, to protect vulnerable workers and compliant firms from rogue employers; we are fully supportive of proposals included in the Employment Bill to introduce a new system of fair arrears and proportional penalties.BERR begins retirement age monitoringCBI staff attended the launch of BERR’s programme of monitoring of the default retirement age of 65 (DRA) last week. The DRA, which was established at the time of the age discrimination regulations to ensure that firms could continue manage their workforces effectively, is to be reviewed in 2012. The CBI would appreciate examples from members on whether and how they use the DRA to feed into this ongoing work.Agency work lobbying continuesCBI Director of Human Resources Policy, Susan Anderson, met with the Minister of State for Employment Relations, Pat McFadden MP to discuss agency work issues. Susan urged the Minister to continue to seek improvements to the Directive that benefit the UK, but recognised his concerns that the blocking minority in Brussels has weakened. We expressed our concern about amongst back bench MPs for two Private Members Bills – the first on extending rights for agency workers and a second bill to extend TUPE rights to share sales, particularly in regard to private equity. The CBI will lobby hard against these two Bills which would be particularly damaging to labour market flexibility.CBI meets top Equalities OfficialCBI Director of HR Policy Susan Anderson met Janice Shersby, new of Head of the Government Equalities Office, recently to discuss the Government’s key priorities in the field of equality and diversity. Susan stressed that while the CBI welcomed the Discrimination Law Review green paper’s balanced approach, we would continue to oppose calls for mandatory equal pay audits, an extension of the right to request flexible working or the introduction of representative action. Harriet Harman, the new Secretary of State for equalities is expected to make a statement of her priorities towards the end of the year.Rogue operators exploiting equality dutiesThe CBI has been made aware of a growing number of unscrupulous organisations seeking to exploit businesses’ desire to comply with the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act (the DDA) and other equalities legislation. This may take a number of forms. One is 'gold-plating' – in other words, advising businesses that they must, under the DDA, provide specific adjustments (or risk being taken to court) without any regard for the circumstances. While there is a requirement to make 'reasonable adjustments', these operators pressure companies to go to unnecessary expense where, with a little imagination and forethought, less expensive options exist. Another practice of which members should be wary is approaches by those who claim to offer accreditation or other recognition of equality policy, to make your business DDA compliant, or to protect you from legal action. Often these organisations falsely suggest that they have close relationships with Equality Commissions or Government. Members are advised to be vigilant and to refer to the numerous sources of advice which are available free of charge, for example through the Commission for Equality and Human Rights, Acas and BusinessLink.CBI welcomes single equality commissionThe CBI welcomed the launch of the new Commission for Equality and Human Rights (CEHR) on 1 October and reiterated employers’ commitment to equality and diversity in the workplace. The CBI called on the new body to make high quality information, advice and guidance on promoting diversity in the workplace its first priority. Over 1,000 pages of guidance were produced by the Commission's predecessor bodies dealing with sex, race and disability rights, making it exceptionally hard for firms, especially smaller ones without dedicated HR teams, who want to do the right thing. If it achieves all these things, the CEHR will be seen as the truly integrated, ‘one-stop-shop’ that was promised.Discrimination law review responseThe CBI response to the Discrimination Law Review green paper was submitted to Government at the end of September. The majority of proposals in the Green Paper strike a sensible balance between the wish for greater consistency in equality laws and solutions that are broadly relevant and proportional, including proposals to extend the scope of positive action measures and to introduce a single and flexible public sector duty. However, the response called on Government to stand firm and to continue resisting calls for inappropriate simplification and harmonisation, including the introduction of mandatory equal pay audits, representative actions or an extension of the equality duty to the private sector.Key issues in summaryFor the latest CBI thinking on equality issues, see our business summaries.If you need free Adobe Acrobat PDF reader software or help with PDF documents, go to the Adobe Accessibility site at http://access.adobe.com Email us if you have accessibility requirements. Links to third-party sites are provided for your convenience. The CBI does not control these sites nor is it responsible for their contents. Inclusion of links does not imply endorsement of the site, business or organisation, or of the material displayed on these sites. Third-party sites will open in a new window. Click on this link to go to the Policy Work page. |
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