Equality & Discrimination

What is the purpose of the

new Act?
• came into force on 1 October 2010

• brings together over 116 separate pieces of

legislation into one single Act

• The Equality Act provides a legal framework to

protect the rights of individuals and advance
equality of opportunity for all
What are the protected
characteristics?
Who is protected by the Act?
• The short answer is everyone in Britain is protected by the Act.
• The Act also sets out the “protected characteristics”

• Age
• Disability
• Gender reassignment
• Marriage and civil partnership
• Pregnancy and maternity
• Race
• Religion and belief
• Sex
• Sexual orientation
What behaviour is unlawful?
• Direct discrimination
• Indirect discrimination
• Associative discrimination
• Perceived discrimination
• Harassment
• Victimisation
Acas Video
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxkC8A648JA
Who has a responsibility
under the Act?
• Government departments
• Service providers
• Employers
• Education providers (Schools, FHE colleges and
Universities)
• Providers of public functions
• Associations and membership bodies
• Transport providers
 Comparators
• There must be no material difference between the circumstances relating to each
case.

• The treatment of the claimant must be compared with that of an actual or

hypothetical person who does not share the same protected characteristic, but
whose circumstances are not materially different

• If there is no actual comparator, the tribunal must create a hypothetical one,

drawing a careful inference from all the available evidence Shannon v Chief
Constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary

• The circumstances must not be materially different Eweida v British Airways

 Protected Characteristics /
Prohibited Conduct
AGE – Section 13 (2)

• There is no discrimination if it can be shown that

treatment so accorded is a proportionate means of
achieving a legitimate aim

• Wolf v Stadt Frankfurt am Main – applicants for jobs

in the fire service should be under 30
 Gender
Reassignment
• Any individual who proposes to undergo/is/has undergone a process for the
purpose of reassigning that persons sex

• There is no contravention of the employment provisions if having regard to

the nature of context of the work a requirement not to be a transsexual
person is an occupational requirement, and it is a legitimate aim
DISABILITY – S15

• A person has a disability if he has a physical or mental

impairment, which has a substantial and long term adverse
effect on his ability to carry out normal day to day activities

• A tendency to pyromania, kleptomania or voyeurism are not

impairments

• If the treatment results in the disabled person suffering a

detriment, this will amount to discrimination

• Treatment will not be unfavourable if it is a proportionate

way of achieving a legitimate aim

• Farmiloe v Lane Group – safety boots. Psoriasis

• Duty to make ‘reasonable adjustments’
 Religion or
belief
• Any religion. Any religious or philosophical
belief.

• Philosophical belief = difficult to define. Grainger

plc v Nicholson – belief that climate change was
man-made

• Azmi v Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council –

full face veil whilst teaching

• Exception for occupational requirement

 Other protected
groups
- Rehabilitated persons
• Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 – genuine effort to rehabilitate,
conviction is ‘spent’

• The Act provides no remedy to an individual who feels that they have been
discriminated against

- Young persons
• Max: 40 hours per week, 8 hours a day

• Young workers must take two days off each week.

Equal pay & the
Equality Act 2010
The Equality Act equal pay provisions are called ‘equality of terms’ and cover all aspects of the contractual
pay and benefits package, including:

• Basic pay • Access to pension

• Non-discretionary schemes
bonuses • Benefits under
• Overtime rates and pension schemes
allowances • Hours of work
• Performance related • Company cars
benefits • Sick pay
• Severance and • Fringe benefits such
redundancy pay as travel allowances
The Legal Position
• Employees can compare any term in the contract
of employment with the equivalent terms in a
comparator’s contract

• The Equality Act 2010 makes it unlawful to

prevent employees from having discussions to
establish if there are differences in pay.
Equality of Terms
• The ‘equality of terms’ provisions in the Equality Act 2010 (the
Act) entitle a woman doing equal work with a man in the same
employment to equality in pay and other terms and conditions

• The Act implies a sex equality clause automatically into her

contract of employment, ensuring that her contractual terms
are no less favourable than his. The man with whom she is
claiming equal pay is known as her comparator.
 Equal work
• There are three kinds of equal work

• Like work
• Rated as equivalent
• Work of equal value
 Employers
• The equal pay (equality of terms) provisions in the Act apply to
all employers irrespective of their size and whether they
operate in the public or the private sectors.
Pay and benefits linked to
length of service
• You are allowed to give workers different pay and
benefits based on how long they have worked for you,
even though this would otherwise be indirect
discrimination because of age
• For length of service up to five years, you do not have to
justify differences at all
• If you use length of service of more than five years this
falls outside the exception
 Avoiding unlawful
discrimination
• There are different ways you might decide what to pay a
person and what benefits to provide, such as:
• The going rate for the job in your sector/area
• The skills and qualifications needed by someone when they do
the job
• Their performance in the job

You must make sure that the way you work out and apply these
criteria does not discriminate unlawfully
Have Equality provisions
gone ‘too far’?