LRD guides and handbook May 2015

Law at Work 2015

Chapter 6

6. Discrimination

[ch 6: page 138]

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 piece of legislation.

The EA 10 must be interpreted so far as possible in line with European law — EU Employment Equality Framework Directive 2000/78 — and also in line with the European Convention on Human Rights.

A new directive, the EU Public Procurement Directive (Directive 2014/14/24/EU), was adopted in 2014. Article 18(2) requires member states to take “appropriate measures” to ensure that outsourcing companies comply with EU environmental, social and labour law obligations, as well as national law and collective agreements, when providing public services. This includes equality legislation. The UK government must implement the Directive in UK law by April 2016.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has issued a Code of Practice on Employment (the EHRC Code), available to download from the EHRC website. Tribunals must consider the Code when making their decisions.

www.equalityhumanrights.com/sites/default/files/documents/EqualityAct/employercode.pdf

The EHRC has also published guidance on the Public Sector Equality Duty and on carrying out equality audits (see page 194).

www.equalityhumanrights.com/private-and-public-sector-guidance/public-sector-providers/public-sector-equality-duty

The government Equalities Office has also produced guidance, available from the GOV.UK website.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/equality-act-guidance

Many unions have published their own guidance and equality toolkits for reps and negotiators.

The TUC has published many guides, including a guide to equality law as well as a separate tool kit about the Public Sector Equality Duty.

https://www.tuc.org.uk/equality-issues

https://www.tuc.org.uk/sites/default/files/tucfiles/guideequalitylaw2011.pdf

https://www.tuc.org.uk/publications/tuc-equality-duty-toolkit