EHRC publishes public sector specific duties guides

The Equality and Human Rights Commission have published three guides relating to the public sector specific duties, which came into force on 10 September 2011, designed to enable public sector bodies to carry out the general equality duty more effectively.

The Equality Act 2010 provides for regulations to be made setting out specific duties to be imposed upon specified public authorities to enable them to carry out the general equality duty prescribed by S.149 of the Equality Act 2010 more effectively and which are contained in the Equality Act (Specific Duties) Regulations 2011 which came into force on 10 September 2011. The Equality and Human Rights Commission has now revised three of its guidance documents to reflect the requirements set out in the Regulations. The Guides are: Equality information and the Equality Duty; Equality objectives and the Equality Duty ; and Engagement and the Equality Duty 

Stonewall's 2012 list of gay-friendly employers

Stonewall has published its Top 100 Employers 2012, showcasing Britain's best employers for lesbian, gay and bisexual staff, with Ernst & Young topping the list and Accenture winning the award for Employee Network Group of the Year.

The Workplace Equality Index 2012 is based on a range of key indicators, which this year included new, more demanding criteria and which uses the results of a confidential survey of lesbian, gay and bisexual employees, with over 7,500 participants, to decide the Top 100. Stonewall say that the Index is used by Britain's 1.7 million gay employees and 150,000 gay university students to decide where to take their talent and skills. The top employer for lesbian, gay and bisexual people in 2012 is Ernst & Young. In second place is the Home Office and Barclays comes third. Accenture wins the award for Employee Network Group of the Year and Bill Payne, former Chief Executive of Metropolitan Housing Partnership, was named Individual Champion of the Year.

Revised Parental Leave Directive implementation postponed for a year

The Government has confirmed that it will postpone the implementation of the revised Parental Leave Directive, which increases leave from 13 to 18 weeks, for one year because of the on-going development of its Modern Workplaces policy.

A revised Parental Leave Directive (2010/18/EU) was approved in 2010, with the principal change being that parents of a child under the age of five will each have the right to take up to 18 weeks' unpaid parental leave, an extension to the current 13 weeks. However, while the Directive is due for implementation on 8 March 2012, member states are allowed a one-year extension to take account of ‘particular difficulties’. The BIS have confirmed that it will use the extension, and delay implementation until March 2013, because of the thorough review of parental leave undertaken as part of the Consultation on ‘Modern Workplaces: flexible parental leave, flexible working, annual leave and equal pay’, which took place last year.

EHRC funds first age discrimination cases in Supreme Court

The Equality and Human Rights Commission funded the first two age discrimination cases heard by the Supreme Court earlier this month, arguing that the justification test for age discrimination allowed for in equality legislation is in urgent need of clarification.

Seldon v Clarkson, Wright and Jakes and Homer v Yorkshire Police Constabulary, both seek clarity on the justification test for age discrimination, i.e. a 'proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim'. Although the default retirement age was abolished in April 2011, employers can still end employment at a ‘notional’ retirement age and not fall foul of the law where the dismissal is: (i) not discriminatory, as it is justifiable to meet a legitimate business aim and is proportionate; and (ii) for one of the fair reasons under S.98 of the Employment Rights Act 1996. For this reason, the EHRC believes that Supreme Court’s clarification of the justification test has wide implications for retirement situations, and any other age discrimination, which an employer seeks to justify, and lawyers and employers need to understand when age discrimination is 'justifiable' in terms of the law.

Selection for redundancy was discriminatory and victimisation

In Brennan and Ellis v (1) Denne Joinery Ltd (2) Parker, an employment tribunal found that that one employee was dismissed on grounds of sexual orientation after being harassed at an office party and another employee was victimised by being dismissed because he told the harasser that the behaviour was unacceptable.

Miss Brennan claimed that Mr Parker had harassed her on grounds of her sexual orientation at an office party. She alleged that he: (i) said she was difficult to deal with as she is gay; (ii) asked her to go back to his hotel room so that he could show her what she was missing out on; and (iii) put his head on her chest. The next day, Mr Ellis who had tried unsuccessfully to intervene at the time, told Parker that he did not think his behaviour was acceptable and  Parker responded that it was of no consequence as Miss Brennan was "just a dyke". The next month, Miss Brennan and Mr Ellis were made redundant. Miss Brennan claimed harassment and direct discrimination. Mr Ellis claimed victimisation.