REDP: Late Guidance on Equality Act 'Risks Confusion.'

Regional Equality & Diversity Partnership

Late Guidance on Equality Act 'Risks Confusion.'

Date: 29/9/2010
Summary: Guidance on how employers should handle the introduction of the Equality Act 2010 has come too late and risks creating widespread confusion, lawyers have warned.

The long-anticipated Equality Act, which rationalises existing rights as well as adding new responsibilities in the field of disability discrimination, will come into force on 1 October. However, guidance on how the old laws will be phased out and the new laws brought in was only issued last week. This says that acts of discrimination that took place entirely before October will be dealt with under the old laws, but continuing situations that include dates from October onwards will come under the new rules.

Employees will be able to bring separate claims under the old and new laws if they relate to different acts of discrimination either side of the implementation date. Moreover, the act changes the way employment tribunals determine whether an employee is disabled, but this element of the new guidance has not yet been finalised and employers must continue to rely on the current out-of-date guidance.

Sandra Wallace, head of equality and diversity at DLA Piper, said that the guidance gave employers little time to prepare. "Acts of discrimination rarely fit into neat boxes - they are often based on allegations regarding actions that take place over long periods of time - which means the details on how and when laws are going to change is absolutely critical in this situation.

"Unfortunately, by issuing the implementing legislation so late in the day, and not incorporating all elements of the act, businesses have been left with a halfway house that will potentially confuse them even more than they already were, and risk protracted legal wrangles in employment tribunals that are already overstretched with a general increase in claims."

Source: People Management

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