6. DISCRIMINATION
[ch 6: page 147]The Equality Act 2010 (EA 10) became law on 8 April 2010. The EA 10 did not make many significant changes to existing equality laws, but it helpfully consolidated all those laws under one single piece of legislation.
The EA 10 must be interpreted so far as possible in line with European law, in particular the EU Employment Equality Framework Directive 2000/78, and with the European Convention on Human Rights.
Available guidance on the Equality Act 2010
The Employment and Human Rights Commission has issued a Code of Practice on Employment (the EHRC Code) which can be downloaded from the EHRC website (www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/documents/EqualityAct/employercode.pdf).
Tribunals must take the Code into account when making their decisions.
The government Equalities Office has also produced guidance, available from GOV.uk (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/equality-act-guidance).
Many unions have issued their own guidance and equality toolkits for reps.
The TUC has published a downloadable Guide to equality law (www.tuc.org.uk/equality-issues/tuc-guide-equality-law-2011).
The TUC has also issued a separate toolkit on the public sector equality duty (www.tuc.org.uk/equality-issues/tuc-equality-duty-toolkit).