Equality Bill To Be Announced In Draft Queen's Speech: The EFA Warns Of Danger Of Ignoring Employers

13 May 2008

The Prime Minister will tomorrow deliver the draft Queen's Speech and is expected to include an announcement of a major shakeup of discrimination laws in the UK, in the form of an Equality Bill. The Employers Forum on Age, the UK's leading authority on age, believes that employers, who are vital to achieving equality in the UK, must not be sidelined in the drive for more legislation.

Rachel Krys, Director of The Employers Forum on Age comments, "Our members support the Government's commitment to ending unfair age discrimination. However, we are still to be convinced that further legislation, at this stage, is the right way to achieve the massive social change required to meet this goal.

"Our experience of the age regulations also showed us just how complex legislating in this area is. It was only when employers began to implement some of the necessary changes that the many of the unintended consequences came to light. Failure to engage employers in the development of this Bill will lead to laws which may make sense on paper, but will not work in the real world.

"It has been almost a year since the last green paper and while Harriet Harman, Minister for Women and Cabinet Minister for Equalities gave further insight into the proposals and indicated that there will be a further round of consultation, we fear that this will be too late for employers, lawyers and individuals to have a real opportunity to make a vital contribution to this debate."

The Employers Forum on Age believes that:

• The case has not been made for the extension of age discrimination laws to cover goods and services
• A public sector duty which covers all grounds of discrimination, including age, could be an effective first step in removing much of the unfair discrimination which people experience
• There is much to be learned from employers' experience of implementing age laws