Legislation
Acas guidance published on new Equality Act
30/07/2010 07:36
Help is at hand for employers preparing for the new Equality Act – the most comprehensive new anti-discrimination law for 35 years – coming into force in October.
The Equality Act 2010 received Royal Assent in April, and reforms and consolidates more than 100 pieces of equality legislation into a single Act.
Following confirmation by the Government Equalities Office that the core provisions of the Act (concerning discrimination in the workplace and in the provision of goods, liabilities and services) are due to take effect from October, Acas has published a quick-start guide, entitled ‘The Equality Act – What’s New for Employers?’, which details how employers can reassess and align their practices to remain compliant.
The guidance contains a helpful chart showing where the rights and responsibilities under the Act have:
- stayed the same (eg direct discrimination still occurs when ‘someone is treated less favourably than another person because of a protected characteristic’, such as age, race, sex or sexual orientation);
- changed (eg employees can complain of harassment even if it is not directed at them, if they can show that it creates an offensive environment);
- been extended (eg associative discrimination will now cover age, disability, gender reassignment and sex as well as race, religion and belief and sexual orientation); and
- been introduced for the first time (eg the concept of discrimination arising from disability as well as direct discrimination – which would occur if a disabled person is treated unfavourably because of something arising in consequence of their disability, or associative discrimination, which could include bad treatment of employees who care for the disabled).
- Download the guidance from the Acas website
Operative date
- 1 October 2010