The Government has finally published its long awaited Equality Bill.  The Bill brings together all the various pieces of discrimination legislation into one and irons out the minor differences between them.

 
Controversially, one of its aims is to force employers with 250 or more employees to publish information which identifies differences in pay between men and women (although this particular aspect will not come in for another four years or so).

It also outlaws the use of clauses in employment contracts which bar employees from disclosing their pay to other employees.

 

Another new introduction is the outlawing of discrimination by association.  This has come about as a consequence of the case of Coleman v Altridge Law, which was decided in favour of Mrs Coleman in the European Court of Justice.  In brief she claimed that her employer treated her less favourable than other employees when she sought flexible hours to care for her disabled son.  Her claim of disability discrimination failed under UK law because she was not disabled.  The ECJ however, said that this bit of the UK law was incompatible with the EU directive.

 

This will be quite far reaching, as it will not only apply to disability cases - it would apply, for instance, if an employee was being teased by colleagues because their son was gay (under the provisions of discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientiation).   

 

So far the Bill has just had its second reading in Parliament, so it will be some time before it is enacted - watch this space!

 

If your pay structure is informal and if there are significant differences between employees' pay levels that are difficult to justify, it would be a good idea to carry out a review now in order to plan a strategy to address these differences in an affordable way.