Usefully Employed

The new Equality Bill will, in addition to consolidating the diverse statutes that currently cover the area, introduce:

• A prohibition on age discrimination in providing goods and services;
• A statutory basis for positive discrimination on (apparently) gender and race;
• Staged compulsory disclosure of gender pay gaps, perhaps with forced audits.

The first of these is of limited employment law relevance, although much in the same way that disability discrimination extends to goods and services provided to workers, potentially there is some scope for claims. Some workplaces may have to examine the services they provide to see if some discriminate against older or younger workers.

The other two areas are fairly major - and it’s difficult to properly comment until the draft bill is published. Positive discrimination is rightly a touchy subject. Many in the UK feel as though it already goes on, this chap is an extreme, but spend too long in a pub, or trawl any site which has user-generated comment, and you’ll soon be thrown the opinion by someone that white males are somehow being marginalised and those from minorities have ‘an easier ride’. I don’t agree with that view, you understand, but government must realise that it’s gradually turning from an extreme point of view to a mainstream one. This is very dangerous, and must be addressed.

Harriet Harman talks about the proposals on the Today programme, here.