Participation and Progress

1
Participation and Progress

• University of Wolverhampton
• Biennial Conference
• 2010
• Berry Dicker

2
What is this briefing about?

• It will cover
• Why a new Equality Act?
• The main general changes.
• Other changes impacting on Universities/HEIs.
• What is up to you.

3
What more legislation?

• Equality Act received Royal Assent
• 08 April 2010

4
Well actually, yes and no

• Existing legislation such as that below is being
  repealed and restated. Most provisions of new Act
  become law Oct 2010.
• -        The Equal Pay Act 1970
  )
• -        The Sex Discrimination Act 1975
  ) their various
• -        The Race Relations Act 1976
  ) amendments
• -        The Disability Discrimination Act 1995
  )
• -        The Employment Equality
  (Religion/Belief) Regs 2003
• -        The Employment Equality (SO) Regs 2003
• -        The Employment Equality (Age) Regs 2006
• -        The Equality Act 2006, Part 2
• -        The Equality Act (Sexual Orientation)
  Regulations 2007

5
So its just tidying up?
..Not exactly.

• PROTECTED CHARACTERISTICS
• age ( Age Provisions goods and services
  expected 2012)
• disability
• gender reassignment
• marriage and civil partnership
• pregnancy and maternity
• race
• religion or belief
• sex
• sexual orientation
• Equality Act 2010
  

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The EHRC summarises the reasons for change as
follows

• 1
• Making the law easier to understand and implement
  by simplifying 116 pieces of equality legislation
  (e.g. acts, regulations, codes,) into a single
  Act for individuals, public authorities and
  private organisations

7
EHRC summary continued

• 2
• Giving people the right not to be treated less
  favourably by public authorities because of their
  age, religion or belief, sexual orientation, or
  transgender status as well as their disability,
  gender, or race which were already covered.

8
EHRC summary continued

• 3
• Extending anti-age discrimination rules to
  include goods, facilities and services, thereby,
  for example, stopping people being unfairly
  refused insurance or medical treatments based on
  what age they are.

9
EHRC Investigations and Inquiries

• As part of an investigation or Inquiry the
  Commission, acting under Schedule 2 of the
  Equality Act 2006, can require organisations such
  as service providers or public authorities to
  provide information about their policies or
  practices. An organisation cannot unreasonably
  refuse to provide such information.
• There are other enforcement tools e.g.
  assessments, interventions, agreements and
  compliance notices

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Have any equality rights granted before the 2010
legislation been removed?

• No it is all still there, restated. For the new
  protected characteristics provision has been
  upgraded and improved.
• There has been additional tweaking of some
  existing provisions.

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Equality Act 2010Extended public sector
equality duty

• (a) eliminate discrimination, harassment,
  victimisation and any other conduct that is
  prohibited by or under this Act
• (b) advance equality of opportunity between
  persons who share a relevant protected
  characteristic and persons who do not share it
• (c) foster good relations between persons who
  share a relevant protected characteristic and
  persons who do not share it.
• Page 96 Equality Act 2010

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HEIS will need tobased on ECU Guidance

• 1
• By reviewing all functions with regard to the
  protected characteristics
• .develop and publish equality objectives,
  with reference to relevant evidence, and publicly
  set out the steps they intend to take to achieve
  them.

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HEIS will need tobased on ECU Guidance

• 2
• Be aware that though not all protected
  characteristics or functions will require an
  objective if there is no evidence for it, .HEIs
  will need to be able to show evidence for why
  they have not set an equality objective for a
  particular protected characteristic.

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HEIS will need tobased on ECU Guidance

• 3
• Take account of national equality objectives
  agreed by Government and disseminated to public
  bodies.

15
HEIS will need to notebased on ECU Guidance

• There is an extended definition of positive
  action to enable employers to address significant
  patterns of under-representation amongst their
  staff,
• the requirement for publication of gender pay
  gap data by individual HEIs,
• a ban on the use of pre-employment health
  questionnaires, (i.e. not allowed before job
  offers)
• extended legal protection for women when
  breast-feeding.

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Some other changes to be noted by HEIs

• Changes to Disability legislation
• New socio-economic duty
• Dual strand discrimination
• Caste may be added as an aspect of race
• Impact assessments
• Procurement

17
Changes relating to disability

• 1
• The new Act introduces the concept of indirect
  discrimination on the grounds of disability to
  replace current provisions on disability-related
  discrimination in the DDA. This helps to
  harmonise protection for the various equality
  strands and takes into account recent case law on
  disability.
• In addition there are two types of prohibited
  conduct that relate only to disability. These
  are discrimination arising from disability and
  the duty to make reasonable adjustments.
• Cindy Williams-Findlay

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Changes relating to disability

• 2. These concepts are closely linked to elements
  in the DDA.
• Discrimination arising from disability means
  treating a disabled person unfavourably for a
  reason relating to their disability, and the
  treatment cannot be justified. To be justified
  the treatment must be a proportionate means of
  achieving a legitimate aim.
• The duty to make reasonable adjustments applies
  where a provision, criterion or practice or a
  physical feature of premises puts a disabled
  person at a substantial disadvantage compared
  with people who do not experience the same
  disability. Cindy Williams-Findlay

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New socio-economic duty

• The Act sets out a new legal duty on key public
  bodies, including central government and local
  authorities, to ensure they consider the impact
  that their strategic decisions will have on
  narrowing socio-economic inequalities.
• This comes into force in April 2011

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The new law makes provision for dual
discrimination protection from April 2011

• Example
• DIY company does not shortlist a young woman for
  interview for a role on the shop floor. The
  company believe that she is unlikely to give the
  impression of having the necessary skills and
  knowledge to advise and sell DIY goods to
  customers. The companys shop floor staffs are
  mostly older men with some older women and some
  younger men. The reason for the less favourable
  treatment would appear to be a combination of the
  applicants sex and age.
• From the draft Statutory Code. Employment.

21
Caste can be added to the definition of race

• Caste discrimination
• . the Government accepted an amendment at
  Report stage in the House of Lords that allows
  caste to be added by Ministerial order to the
  Bills definition of race.
• This means that if the power were used,
  unlawful discrimination and harassment because of
  caste would be prohibited in the same way as
  discrimination because of colour, nationality,
  ethnic or national origins.
• Michael Rubenstein Equal Opportunities Review
  No 199

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Procurement

• Procurement
• HEIs will need to actively consider the equality
  requirements of every contract they tender and,
  if it is relevant and proportionate, to consider
  including equality-related award criteria or
  contract conditions.
• ECU Guidance

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Impact assessments

• Impact assessments are not mentioned in the
  legislation but will be covered by ERHC guidance.
  
• They may be useful in showing why you have not
  set equality objectives for some protected
  characteristics

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Legislation does not do it all, some of it is
down to you.

• Unconscious incompetence
  Any of us may hold
  a set of beliefs or assumptions of which we are
  not conscious but which affect the way we relate
  to people. Unconscious incompetence is where
  these are unhelpful to us and the place where we
  work.
• Conscious incompetence
• Over time the irrelevance or inaccuracy of
  these assumptions may become evident to us in
  various ways. We may become aware through
  training, OR we may receive a legal challenge.
• Conscious Competence
• We think more carefully about what we are
  doing and the underlying assumptions and we
  improve our reactions.
• Unconscious competence
• It comes naturally to discard unhelpful
  and/or inaccurate assumptions from the past which
  no longer influence us.
• As explained by Anjana Nathwani. (Business
  Psychologist). Scheider- Ross

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• The End