Equality Bill 2010

Autumn 2010 will herald the implementation of the new Equality Bill, which will condense the current nine pieces of legislation into one covering all strands of discrimination. 

The law will not be significantly changed; the objective of the Bill is to make discrimination legislation easier to understand and use, and so increase equality.  However, the simplification of complex legal issues may leave grey areas that will only be clarified through testing in case law, which will be a long term process. 

In the meantime, employers need to know how to treat disabled workers appropriately – nearly 20% of people of working age have a disability.  In the year to March 2009 there were 5,961 claims for disability discrimination taken to employment tribunal and there is no cap on the potential award for a successful claim. 

Under the DDA 1995 it is unlawful to treat less favourably an employee or prospective employee for a reason relating to their disability.  This covers  terms of employment, promotion, transfer, training, benefits, and dismissal (including non renewal of a fixed term contract).  It also means an employer is liable for discrimination by their employees unless steps have been taken to prevent it. An employer is expected to provide any necessary reasonable adjustments for disabled employees and applicants.
Things to consider:

• Regular audit of policies and procedures and their implementation throughout the organisation.  If all employees – managers and others – know their responsibilities, the posibility of claims under the DDA is reduced.
• Is the employee covered by the DDA? 
  Under the Act a disability is a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term (likely to last for 12 months or to recur) adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.  Qualifying for Disability Living Allowance or  being registered disabled is not conclusive either way under the Act. 
• Making reasonable adjustments to working conditions or work environment.
  This may include such things as acquiring or modifying equipment, re-allocating work or place of work, changing working hours.  This should be done in consultation with the employee and should take into account how effective the adjustment will be in reducing the disadvantage, how practical and how affordable it is, the disruption it will cause and whether it will help other people in the workplace.
  Any adjustments made should be monitored and reviewed.

If the employee is disabled and no reasonable adjustments are appropriate, redeployment or dismissal on grounds of capability are options.  Invoking the grievance procedure to address potential claims before tribunal is another possibility.

In all these cases it will be necessary to follow carefully the right procedures, and you may well need to seek advice from Hardwick HR.

ACAS  and UK Council for Access and Equality  are good sources of information.