The Equality Act came into force in the UK at the beginning of October 2010. This legislative framework
aims to strengthen and streamline existing discrimination legislation to create
a fairer Britain. The basis for the
majority of the provisions is discrimination of individuals on the basis of
these particular protected characteristics: sex, age, race, disability, gender
reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, religion or belief, pregnancy and
maternity or sexual orientation.

The government has agreed on a staggered approach to the
implementation of this legislation due to the expectations placed on employers
and others as a result of provisions within the Equality Act. Employers will have to amend their policies in
accordance with the legislative provisions.

Association and perception

The association and perception provision of the new
Equality Act provides extensive protection for all employees from direct
discrimination. It also protects employees
from discrimination based on perceptions rather than fact. As such, if an individual is discriminated
against having been wrongly perceived as possessing a protected characteristic
then they can invoke discrimination legislation. This provision also applies when an individual
has an association with another who has a protected characteristic.

Combined discrimination

This provision comes into play when an individual claims
that they have been discriminated against for possessing more than one
protected characteristic. As an example,
a man who is claiming discrimination due to his sexual orientation may also
claim discrimination on the grounds of his race. It has been predicted that, in such
circumstances, the individual will make individual discrimination claims on
each count plus a combined discrimination claim. Law professionals have suggested that this
provision may increase discrimination claims in the workplace by 10 percent.

Third party harassment

Under the provisions of the Equality Act, employers also
have a responsibility to protect their employees from harassment or
discrimination at the hands of third parties. There is a three strikes
provision where third party harassment is concerned. This means that an
employer must be aware that an employee has been harassed by a third party,
e.g. client, customer, supplier, on at least two prior occasions and has failed
to take reasonable steps to prevent harassment from occurring again.

Pre-employment health questionnaires

At present, most employers expect prospective employees to
disclose medical conditions prior to a job offer being made. This allows employers to assess the ability of
the person to do the job, but this can also alert employers to the likelihood
of an individual taking extensive periods of time off work due to ill health. Under the Equality Act, employees will no
longer be required to disclose health conditions that have no direct bearing on
their ability to perform the duties required of any specific post. Employers will have to review their
recruitment processes. Businesses may
see an increase in their sickness rates as they will have less control over the
employment of people with, for example, chronic long term illnesses.

Pay

There are two main provisions within the Equality Act which
relate to pay. Firstly, employers cannot enforce pay secrecy clauses, meaning
employees will be free to discuss their rates of pay with colleagues. The government included this provision to
ensure there was no pay discrimination in respect of protected characteristics. Secondly, all private sector businesses
with at least 250 employees must publish details of salary inequities between
their male and female colleagues.