On the 1st of February Fusion attended the Women's Educational Event at Eden Court which always features an interesting speaker. This event was no different with the speaker being Gillian Shaw from Harper MacLeod. The session was looking at the Equality Act which could have been quite dry material to go through but Gillian included lots of recent examples of cases to make it all much easier to digest.
The Equality Act covers 9 protected characteristics - age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, race, transgender, maternity and marital status. It is unlawful to discriminate on the basis of any of these. All the characteristics are protected equitably so it would be as unlawful to discriminate against a younger person as it would an older person for example. The one exception to that rule is disability. Employers have a duty to make reasonable adjustments to give disabled people the opportunity to work at their business for example. The other exception is that a non disabled person doesn't have a claim under the legislation if a disabled person is promoted ahead of them just because they are disabled.
We looked at various examples of discrimination and discussed what we felt about these. For the most part we all had a similar understanding but age discrimination was slightly different. We felt that this was because it was quite new and this combined with the removal of the compulsory retirement age meant there was a change in this area too. We discussed whether calling someone "Pops" for example could be offensive.
One of the most interesting sections of this presentation was around associated discrimination. Gillian gave the example of a mother who cared for a disabled child. The mother is not disabled herself but she has caring responsibilities which impact on her life so she should have the opportunity of flexible working if need be.
We finished with one of the most complicated areas which was perceived discrimination. Gillian told us of a case about a man who lived in Brighton and spoke with a public school accent. These factors were enough to convince his colleagues that he was gay, even though he wasn't. He claimed and was compensated accordingly.
There were plenty of interesting cases to look at - some with very large payouts too. We did feel at one point that we would never be able to enjoy any office banter again as someone might take offence but felt reassured by the end of the session that we had a clear understanding of the legislation. It was interesting to note that any claim made by an employee that includes an element of discrimination under the Equality Act is then exempt from the normal time limits that employ to taking an employer to tribunal and is also exempt from the cap on compensation too. It was felt in several of the cases we looked at the discrimination had been "tagged on" when it hadn't been raised at the time and it was reassuring to note that in most cases the courts saw this and reacted accordingly.
The Equality Act seems a very complicated piece of legislation so thanks to Gillian Shaw and the Womens Educational Association for such an interesting event to help mere mortals make sense of it.
The Equality Act covers 9 protected characteristics - age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, race, transgender, maternity and marital status. It is unlawful to discriminate on the basis of any of these. All the characteristics are protected equitably so it would be as unlawful to discriminate against a younger person as it would an older person for example. The one exception to that rule is disability. Employers have a duty to make reasonable adjustments to give disabled people the opportunity to work at their business for example. The other exception is that a non disabled person doesn't have a claim under the legislation if a disabled person is promoted ahead of them just because they are disabled.
We looked at various examples of discrimination and discussed what we felt about these. For the most part we all had a similar understanding but age discrimination was slightly different. We felt that this was because it was quite new and this combined with the removal of the compulsory retirement age meant there was a change in this area too. We discussed whether calling someone "Pops" for example could be offensive.
One of the most interesting sections of this presentation was around associated discrimination. Gillian gave the example of a mother who cared for a disabled child. The mother is not disabled herself but she has caring responsibilities which impact on her life so she should have the opportunity of flexible working if need be.
We finished with one of the most complicated areas which was perceived discrimination. Gillian told us of a case about a man who lived in Brighton and spoke with a public school accent. These factors were enough to convince his colleagues that he was gay, even though he wasn't. He claimed and was compensated accordingly.
There were plenty of interesting cases to look at - some with very large payouts too. We did feel at one point that we would never be able to enjoy any office banter again as someone might take offence but felt reassured by the end of the session that we had a clear understanding of the legislation. It was interesting to note that any claim made by an employee that includes an element of discrimination under the Equality Act is then exempt from the normal time limits that employ to taking an employer to tribunal and is also exempt from the cap on compensation too. It was felt in several of the cases we looked at the discrimination had been "tagged on" when it hadn't been raised at the time and it was reassuring to note that in most cases the courts saw this and reacted accordingly.
The Equality Act seems a very complicated piece of legislation so thanks to Gillian Shaw and the Womens Educational Association for such an interesting event to help mere mortals make sense of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment