The single equality act – how are the scales tipping?

In the last couple of months, Government proposals for the Single Equality Act have been launched. Essentially this act is designed to harmonise the complicated and confusing regulations surrounding workplace laws covering disability, gender, race, age sexual orientation and religious belief.
The proposals, outlined in a Green paper which can be viewed and consulted upon though the website www.communities.gov.uk until 4th September, have received mixed reviews from the disabled community.

Disability Now has led the generally negative views. In the July edition, Katherine Quarmby criticises the proposals for failing to simplify the legal process of employment law and for removing the requirement for public bodies to have a written disability equality scheme under the Disability Equality Duty (DED) introduced in December 2006. On the other hand, she does concede that proposals to compel private landlords to install equipment such as chair lifts and ramps for disabled tenants (admittedly at the tenants’ cost) and to extend the duty of “reasonable adjustment” for employers beyond disability to all areas of equality law are a positive step.

The Law Society Gazette henceforth referred to in this magazine as the LSG (21st June 2007) strikes a more conciliatory view. In his article, Jonathan Rayner counters criticism in terms of legal redress, quoting Michael Short, Chair of the Law Society’s employment law committee:

“The paper proposes several innovations, including more use of alternative dispute resolution to avoid the trauma and ill-feeling associated with employment tribunals”

Rayner also points out that extensions to the rules on providing “reasonable adjustments” at work are likely to extend the rights of all disadvantaged groups, although he does quote Dr Katherine Rake, a director of the campaigning group, the Fawcett society, who, commenting on the proposal to outlaw men-only golf clubs, said:

“This might be good news for women who play golf, but for the millions more who just want to be paid equally, it’s a distraction”

In terms of the impact of the proposals on the Disability Equality Duty (DED) there seems to be a consensus that, should the consultations resulting from the Green Paper result in a situation whereby public bodies are required to have a fully inclusive written equality scheme, rather than simply a disability one, then the spirit of the DED will live on and indeed become stronger. However, the results of this consultation are still in the formation stage.

It would seem therefore, that the proof of this equality pudding will very much be in the eating. The Bridge will continue to update GSD members on this fledgling legislation as matters develop.

Having attended a consultation meeting on 4th July 2007 in Manchester, I would have to confirm that the current legislation proposals are very much a “curate’s egg”. I have prepared a response to the proposals on behalf of Equal Ability CIC which will soon be available on the GSD and Equal Ability CIC web pages in due course and I would very much welcome any comments from GSD members on the Green Paper itself for potential inclusion into the next edition of The Bridge

Daniel Park