Equality Bill - Published at last

The long awaited and eagerly anticipated Equality Bill has now been published in its first draft form and given its first reading. Needless to say it will subject to considerable debate through the various houses but a first draft however can be seen here.

The Bill itself proposes the following:-

• Allows positive discrimination during recruitment in favour of disadvantaged groups when faced with candidates who are otherwise equally qualified

• Reverses Malcolm v London Borough of Lewisham, and abolishes the list of areas in which a disability must impact (eg mobility, manual dexterity, memory or ability to learn, concentrate or understand etc.) I know this judgement caused unrest due to making it more difficult for claimants to succeed in claims of direct disability discrimination and as such this reversal is likely to slip through. Watch this space!

• Contains a clause allowing the Secretary of State to order employers with more than 250 employees to publish information about disparities in pay between male and female employees - although apparently the government has anounced that this power will not be exercised in the next four years. This will impact medium sized employers in terms of the administrative costs of maintaining such information.

• Outlaws any clauses in employment contracts which impose a secrecy obligation stopping employees discussing their pay packages. It has been a long held custom within certain organisations that pay not be discussed between staff members - whilst this will force employers to be more transparent, this could of course breed unrest and poor morale within businesses where there is disparity in pay but for lawful reasons such as skills, and performance.

• Introduces a new obligation for some public bodies to pay due regard to socio-economic disadvantage in making strategic decisions, and extends public sector duties to ensure equality to age discrimination

• Gives effect to recent European caselaw by outlawing discrimination by association.

These are all areas which will impact on the employers manage their staff and they should be prepared to take advice at every opportunity.