Amendments to new Equality Bill
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7 August 2009
The new Equality Bill, which completed its committee stage in
the House of Commons last month, will consolidate all discrimination and
equality legislation into a single statute.
The most notable amendment in the Bill is one for 'multiple
discrimination' which enables claimants to pursue a claim of direct
discrimination based upon any two of the protected characteristics, i.e. race
AND sex (currently a claim can only be brought in relation to a single protected
characteristic).
The Bill has also amended the term 'less favourable' to
'unfavourable' in the context of pregnancy and maternity discrimination.
Other amendments shall include increased paternity rights and
further protection against gender reassignment discrimination. There are also
proposals to further reduce disability discrimination at the recruitment stage
of the employment process (apparently disabled people suffer the most
discrimination at this stage).
The Bill will be reprinted to incorporate the amendments made
during the committee stage of the Bill and is waiting for its report stage on
the floor of the House.
Corinne Day is a trainee solicitor who specialises in
information technology law and intellectual property law. She can be contacted
via e-mail on corinne.day@lawdit.co.uk
About the Author
Lawdit Solicitors offer services and
advice for litigation, commercial contracts, Intellectual Property and IT legal
agreements. We are experts in commercial law with a heavy emphasis on
Intellectual Property, Internet and e-commerce law. Lawdit is a member of the
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