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Equality Bill – Your positive action needed! Harriet Harman and her team at the Government Equalities Office published the first of a planned series of announcements about the Equality Bill. Many observers were left wondering what had actually happened, since extremely bold statements in the press contrasted with a 35 page statement which had little practical detail and proposed more consultation on a number of significant matters. According to Ms Harman further detail should follow at the end of July, and we then expect to be consulted on some of the finer points. Click here to see the EFA’s initial reaction and here to see the statement in full. We will be holding a consultation event for members on 1st September but if you have any comments in the meantime please get in touch with the EFA team. In the meantime we have been meeting ministers and officials to ensure that forward thinking employers have a voice on this complex piece of legislation. We have recently met:
Equality Bill consultation event – date for your diary – 1 September 2008 We have arranged for a consultation event to be held in our offices at London Bridge on 1 September. James Davis from Lewis Silkin has kindly agreed to chair the event. We will provide more information on the agenda as details of the Equality Bill become known. You’re old? You’re fired! This month MPs over the age of 65 were surprised to receive a letter giving notice of their retirement. The letter and accompanying leaflet goes on to highlight the many noteworthy people who have achieved great things well after celebrating their 65th birthday. It is the starting point for EFA’s Parliamentary campaign on the mandatory retirement age. We’re aiming to get Parliamentarians discussing the issue for employers in a Westminster Hall debate. This forms part of an overall education process for MPs, leading up to the Government’s review in 2011. See here for a copy of the letter. Legal update The Heyday challenge to the UK government’s default retirement provisions reached the ECJ for oral hearing on 2 July. The next step will be for the Advocate General to publish his opinion and this will be followed by an ECJ decision, expected before the end of 2008. We have already seen divergence of view between the AG and the court on the related issues in Palacios, so it would be foolhardy to predict the ultimate decision here. The case will then return to the UK High Court, where a final decision may be anticipated in about a year. In the meantime, retirement cases will continue to be stayed in the UK tribunals, the Court of Appeal having ruled that the EAT was correct in Johns v Solent SD. The Tribunal Service has confirmed that over 250 cases have so far been held back. Age discrimination issues in redundancy were explored by over 20 EFA members at a round table discussion held jointly with Beachcroft LLP on 1 July and a summary document will be available in due course. Coincidentally, it has been reported that the Stratford ET found that the dismissal of a worker as redundant only months before he would have been 50 and eligible for pension and a lump sum was an unfair dismissal and age discrimination. He is reportedly now claiming £1 million in compensation for loss of employment until his age of retirement at 65, loss of pension, and injury to feelings, and the amount of any award will be decided at a later hearing. In the meantime, courtesy of Adam Turner at Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP, we have three cases from north of the border which shed a little more light on some other aspects of the Age Regulations we’ve not yet seen tested. To find out more about compensation for improper notice of retirement, indirect discrimination in temporary promotions and the exemption for statutory authority go to this month’s update: Click here for more information. Events e-quality update We are now closing the first stage of the e-quality programme and will be issuing our first reports and benchmarks to participants very soon. If you want to know more about the benefits of using e-quality please contact karen.constantine@efa.org.uk to discuss your specific requirements or to arrange a demonstration. The additional workshops are filling up, and you are advised to reserve your place! Some organisations have used the opportunity to send along several colleagues, this is especially useful where the discrimination strands, Age, Gender, Race etc are dealt with as specialisms within a business. These workshops are an ideal opportunity to find out more about e-quality and will allow you to get hands-on with the programme to really see the advantages of using this great new tool. Your advert here…sponsor the EFA e-bulletin We are looking for a new sponsor for the bulletin. This is a fantastic opportunity to support the EFA and get your message out to the entire membership. For more information contact john.ross@efa.org.uk. |
