GENERAL EQUALITIES LEGISLATION
- Employment Act 2002, The
- Employment Rights Act 1996, The
- Equal Treatment Directive
- Fair Employment Act 1975, The
- Fixed Term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations, 2002
- Flexible Working (Eligibility, Complaints and Remedies) Regulations 2002
- Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, The
- Human Rights Act 1998, The
- Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, The
- Part-time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000 (Amendment) Regulations 2002, The
- Paternity and Adoption Leave Regulations, 2002
This includes an exemption from the operation of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 for acts done in connection with employment or vocational training to compy with certain specified statutory provisions relating to the protection of women at work.
This includes the following rights:
- The right not to be unfairly dismissed
- The right to maternity leave and paid time off for ante-natal care
- The rights for unpaid leave to care for or to arrange care for dependants for a variety of reasons including an unexpected incident involving a child at school
- The right to a suitable alternative work on not substantially less favourable terms and conditions where a legislative or health and safety recommendation prohibs a woman from doing her usual job because she is pregnant, or has recently given birth or is breastfeeding
- The right to be suspended on full pay if a woman is unable to do her usual job on maternity grounds and no suitable alternative work is available
- The right to an itemised pay statement
- The right to no unauthorised deductions from wages
- The right to minimum period of notice of termination
- The right to redundancy
- The right to a written statement of reasons for dismissal
TOP
Equal Treatment Directive
All member states had to implement the Equal Treatment Directive by 2005. The Directive sets out new definitions of direct and indirect sex discrimination, and a freestanding definition of sexual harassment and sex-based harassment. In the UK it meant amending the sex discrimination legislation.
The wording used by the Directive means that the definition of indirect sex discrimination which came into force on 12th October 2001 in accordance with the Sex Discrimination (Indirect Discrimination and Burden of Proof) Regulations once again changed. However, as a result there will is a consistency in the definition of indirect discrimination as between sex, race, and the new strands covered by the Framework Directive.
TOP
Fair Employment Act 1975
Applies only to Northern Ireland and makes it unlawful to discriminate on the grounds of religious belief or religious affiliation.
Fixed Term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations, 2002
The regulations came into force on 1st October 2002. They were prompted by the need to ensure that British law complies with the EC Fixed Term Work Directive 1999. The basic idea is that it becomes unlawful to treat a fixed-term employee less favourably than a comparable permanent employee engaged in similar work, but subject to a defence of objective justification. An employer can objectively justify individual terms which are less favourable if a fixed-term employee's contract taken as a whole is as favourable to him as contracts of permanent employees are to them.
TOP
Flexible Working (Eligibility, Complaints and Remedies) Regulations 2002
As from 6th April 2003, subject to regulations, parents and others (such as guardians) who are responsible for looking after children aged under 6 (or under 18 if the child is disabled) have the legal right to ensure that requests they make for flexible working arrangements (such as part-time work or work at home) are taken seriously by their employers. The request must be to enable the employee to care for the child and an important condition is that the employee must have been employed in his job for at least 6 months to be eligible.
Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974
This places a duty on employers to ensure, as far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all their employees. There are criminal sanctions for failure to comply with this duty and enforcement is by the Health and safety Executive and local authorities.
TOP
Gives the right for people to prosecute public sector organisations. It embodies:
- the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion
- the freedom of expression
- the freedom of assembly
- the prohibition of discrimination
TOP
Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999
These require employers to carry out risk assessments. There are specific obligations on employers to assess risk where there are women of childbearig age at work. Employers may have to alter working conditions or hours of work, offer suitable alternative work or suspend an expectant mother on full pay if necessary to avoid risk to her or her baby.
These regulations introduced new rights for part-time workers. Two amendments came into force on 1st October 2002. These cover Comparators (Regulation 2) and Access to Occupational Pension Schemes (Regulation 8(8).
The part-time workers regulations ensure that Britain's part-timers are not treated less favourably than comparable full-timers in their terms and conditions, unless it is specifically justified. This means that part-timers are entitled, for example, to:
- the same hourly rate of pay
- the same access to company pension schemes
- the same entitlements to annual leave and maternity / parental leave on a pro rata basis
- the same entitlement to contractural sick pay, and
- no less favourable treatment in access to training
TOP
Part-time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000 (Amendment) Regulations 2002
These regulations introduced new rights for part-time workers. Two amendments came into force on 1st October 2002. These cover Comparators (Regulation 2) and Access to Occupational Pension Schemes (Regulation 8(8).
The part-time workers regulations ensure that Britain's part-timers are not treated less favourably than comparable full-timers in their terms and conditions, unless it is specifically justified. This means that part-timers are entitled, for example, to:
- the same hourly rate of pay
- the same access to company pension schemes
- the same entitlements to annual leave and maternity / parental leave on a pro rata basis,
- the same entitlement to contractural sick pay, and
- no less favourable treatment in access to training
TOP
Paternity and Adoption Leave Regulations, 2002
The prohibition of discrimination From 6th April 2003 an employee who adopts a child and and who fulfils certain conditions, including giving the required notice to his/her employer and having worked continuously for the employer for at least 26 weeks, has the statutory right to take up to a year off work on adoption leave.
TOP
RETURN TO LEGISLATION MENU