Disability Equality

Employment Tribunals

The current system of employment tribunals only allows for ‘recommendations’ in some limited cases where employers have been found to have discriminated. In practise, this means that the result of an employment discrimination claim tends to focus on individuals, and very rarely reaps benefits for the wider workforce.

The Equality Bill will do two things to help. First, it will allow for a far wider use of recommendations by tribunals – for example, recommending the introduction of an equal opportunities policy, or a review on equal pay: policies which will allow other people to benefit – even if they themselves weren’t the ones who brought the discrimination claim to tribunal. Secondly, the bill will pave the way for allowing the introduction of class-action discrimination claims: so that an entire workforce can be represented in court by groups such as trade unions or the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Positive Action

The rate of employment of disabled people has risen from 38% ten years ago to 48% today, but if you are disabled, you are still two and a half times more likely to be out of work than a non-disabled person. If we do not step up the rate of progress, disabled people will probably never get the same job prospects as the rest of society. With the new Equality Bill, employers will be allowed to take under-representation into account when choosing between two equally qualified candidates for a job.

Positive Action is supported by the CBI, the TUC and the Equality and Human Rights Commission, as a means of producing workforces which are more diverse and more reflective of the communities they operate in.

The Equality Duty

Of all the groups represented by the Equality Duty, the disabled are those most likely to encounter benefits in their day-to-day lives. Whether it is drop-down kerbs for wheelchair users, or sign-language provision for the deaf, public bodies will be under a duty to provide and promote Equality in every decision they make.