Equality Act 2010: Evaluating Comprehensive Anti-Discriminatory Laws in the UK

Introduction

The Equality Act, 2010 is one of the most debated and celebrated legislation of the United Kingdom that has replaced and repealed several orthodox mentalities regarding equality on the grounds of gender, class, race and disability. While United Kingdom already had many anti-discriminatory acts in active form, most of them were redundant and in dire need of amendment. While the newly implemented Equality Act of 2010 provides ample scope for EU’s Equal Treatment Directives, it also provides England, Scotland and Wales with a wide set of principles and law that go beyond the EU Directives, incorporating UK dissertation help.

In this essay, we shall discuss the background and the development of anti-discriminatory law with special reference to the Equality Act, 2010 and critically evaluate whether the provisions of Equality Act, 2010 has succeeded in covering all the aspects of anti-discriminatory law in different fields of society.

British Anti-discriminatory law – historical timeline

Till the year of 1980, UK did not have any specific provisions for anti-discriminatory law and most of the anti-discriminatory law was a by product of some English common law such as the Public Order Act, 1936. Even though UK was a prime signatory of several international treaties, the national law of the land did not implement it. Till the year of 1998, no law was enacted to ensure the protection of the Human Rights in UK. Discriminations based on gender, class and race were common in society and similar views were used to upheld by the judiciary of the country as well. In the case of Nairn v. The University Court of the University of St Andrews, Lord McLaren was of the view that according to the unwritten constitution of UK, only men could take part in the election procedure. The conservative mindset of the judiciary also decided in the case of Roberts v Hopwood that same scale of pay for men and women fails at the societal perspective of labour. However, after the enactment of the Representation of the People Act of 1928 finally reversed the situation and provided both and women with same footing.

After long debate on the racial discrimination which were a prevalent societal problem of the country, the Race Legislation of 1965 was passed, followed by many other anti-discriminatory laws such as Equal Pay Act, 1970, Sexual Discrimination Act, 1975, Race Relations Act, 1976 and Disability Discrimination Act, 1995. While all of these laws focused on discrimination faced by the vulnerable minority of the country, the non-collectiveness of the Act often rendered it worthless and the provisions were vague in nature. None of these legislations targeted the prime ground where discrimination mostly happens i.e., in the workplace. The labor law sector of UK was ignored and omitted from the anti-discriminatory laws and the abovementioned Acts only worked toward protecting citizens in a more societal environment than in a work culture. The surface enforcement of such legislations on different companies never did any good and most of the workplace did not care enough to introduce the laws on their own. Looking for further insights on Employment Rights and Consumer Protection? Click here.

1. McCrudden, Christopher. "British Anti-Discrimination Law: An Introduction," (1983). Penn State International Law Review: Vol. 2: No. 1, Article 3, pp. 65-97
2. Nairn v The University Court of the University of St Andrews, (1907) 45 S.L.R. 122
3. Roberts v Hopwood, (1925) AC 578

The Development of Equality Act, 2010 and growth of UK’s Anti-Discrimination Legislation

The development of the Equality Act started on 2005 by the Labor Party of the United Kingdom and for the purpose of enacting an Act, a panel of Discrimination Law Review was established. The primary intention of this Act was to simplify the existing laws on discrimination and enforce a more stringent Act that would carry the elements of the old legislations and give it more refined, amplified and amended structure, according to the current need of the society.

In 2008, it was proposed by the Solicitor General Vera Baird that the succession pattern of the Roman Catholics in Church should be changed according to the new Equality Act but the same was opposed by the Roman Catholics and later it was rejected in the case of R. v Secretary of State for Trade and Industry by the High Court of England.

Finally in the year of 2010, the Equality Act was passed by the parliament where it reflected the main ideas of the EU directives that any kind of discrimination on the basis of gender, race, class, age, disability, religion or sexuality shall be entertained and it was made mandatory in the workplace as well. According to the Equality Act, 2010, no employer shall discriminate an employee on the basis of grounds that have been mentioned above. Hence, the main purpose behind enacting the Equality Act of 2010 is to ensure safety and protection for the vulnerable minority community of the society and take care of their well-being.

1. Deakin, Simon. and Morris, Gillian. Labour Law (2012), 6th edn, Hart: Cambridge, ch 6.
2. Zabalza, A., and Z. Tzannatos. “The Effect of Britain's Anti-Discriminatory Legislation on Relative Pay and Employment.” (1985). The Economic Journal, vol. 95, no. 379, pp. 679–699
3. Hunt, Stephen. “Negotiating Equality in the Equality Act 2010 (United Kingdom): Church-State Relations in a Post-Christian Society.” (2013). Journal of Church and State, vol. 55, no. 4, pp. 690–711
4. R. v Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, [2004] EWHC 860
5. The Equality Act, 2010, s.13
6. Deakin, Simon. and Morris, Gillian. Labour Law (2012), 6th edn, Hart: Cambridge, ch 6.

The Current state of Anti-discriminatory Law in United Kingdom under The Equality Act, 2010

As it has been said earlier that Equality Act of 2010 aimed at providing a more simplified and stricter version to the anti-discriminatory laws of the land and to ensure such safety and minimize the conflicts between two legislations having same subject matter, the previous anti-discriminatory laws of the land were essentially repealed by the newly implemented Equality Act of 2010.

As the current state of anti-discriminatory law of United Kingdom is dealt by the Equality Act, 2010, the provisions under this Act are of enormous value and the use of Equality Act, 2010 in workplace has a high rate.

Direct Discrimination Ground – Section 13 of the Equality Act, 2010 deals with the grounds of direct discrimination where a person is denied to be provided with any service or position, solely based on their gender, class, race or any other grounds as have been mentioned above. In the case of Coleman v Attridge Law, it was held that in order to invoke the provision of the Equality Act, 2010, the person needs not be belonged from a vulnerable minority ground but the person has to show some evidential documents of the income and other expenditure herein.

Indirect Discrimination – The Equality Act, 2010, section 19 provides with several grounds and provisions which deals with the concept of indirect discrimination on the basis of age, sex, class, race, religion etc. In the case of Rainey v Greater Glasgow Health Board and Enderby v Frenchay Health Authority, it was held that discriminating between men and women on the ground of equal work, equal pay shall not be valid and the concept of ‘equal work, equal pay’ was established under the purview of the Equality Act, 2010.

1. McCrudden, Christopher. "British Anti-Discrimination Law: An Introduction," (1983). Penn State International Law Review: Vol. 2: No. 1, Article 3, pp. 65-97
2. Barmes, Lizzie. “Equality Law and Experimentation: The Positive Action Challenge.” (2009). The Cambridge Law Journal, vol. 68, no. 3, pp. 623–654.
3. Ibid
4. Coleman v Attridge Law, (2008) C-303/06
5. Rainey v Greater Glasgow Health Board, [1987] AC 224
6. Enderby v Frenchay Health Authority, (1992) C-127/92

Harassment and Victimization – Section 26 of the Equality Act, 2010 provides for grounds against workplace harassment in the nature of sexual or any other kinds of discrimination which allows one person to favor one person more than the other. Also, the term victimization has been defined under the Act which forces the workplaces to adopt a victim friendly environment with zero hostility.

Discrimination based on mental health, disability, age – Section 5, 6 & 8 of the Equality Act, 2010 expressly provides with protection from any kind of discriminations which are to exercised on the abovementioned grounds and with the help of this Act, all of these discriminations are announced illegal in the eyes of law. The same is essential in the case of workplace as well. In the case of Tesco Stores Ltd v Mrs C Tennant, it was held that if a person qualifies to have a mental impairment due to some events, it would come under the purview of disability of the Equality Act, 2010 and it would be unlawful on part of the employer to discriminate an employee herein.

The Positive and Negative Aspect of the current Anti-Discriminatory Law of the United Kingdom

Even though so many amendments have been made to the legislations of the United Kingdom, the concept of discrimination on several grounds still seems to be a far stretched concept which is only rhetorical. However, it has both positive and negative aspects attached to it.

Positive Aspect

The current anti-discriminatory law of UK i.e., the legislation of the Equality Act, 2010 provides ample positive aspect that has helped in minimizing the wide nature of discrimination such as, the increase in the number of discrimination cases. People are being more aware of the clauses of discrimination and employers are forced to adopt policies to that effect in order to make their work culture free of discrimination. Also, it has minimized gender and race-based discrimination at workplace.

1. Tesco Stores Ltd v Mrs C Tennant: UKEAT/0167/19/OO

Negative Aspect

The negative aspect herein lies with the practicability of the workplace culture where due to strict laws on discrimination, employers are keener on accepting applications of those who have zero disability and it is impossible to monitor such prior activities of the employers to ignore or avoid the law.

Critical Evaluation of the Equality Act, 2010 – How can the anti-discriminatory law of UK be improved?

From the abovementioned discussion, it can be critically held that the anti-discriminatory law of UK still lacks various grounds, especially section 6 of the Equality Act, 2010 that covers the grounds of mental disability or mental illness. In the landmark case of Walker v. Northumberland County Council, it was held that if the mental breakdown of the employee is not of foreseeable quality by the employer, the employer shall not be held liable for discrimination. The foreseeable quality of the disability is one of the key aspects and it is the onus of the petitioner to prove that his/her disability had enough foreseeable quality. The same decision was held in the case of Brown v. London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, where the judiciary emphasized on the ‘foreseeable nature’ of the disability to be proved first.

Hence, it can be critically analysed that the judiciary of UK still holds a high ground to prove the quality of discrimination and for most of the cases, it is the duty of the petitioner to prove the existence of such discrimination and not the other way around. Such burden on the shoulder of the victims often causes them to retract from filing any complaints before the court and accept the fate as it is. It can be critically held from the abovementioned discussion that to ensure better use of the anti-discriminatory law, UK government should issue awareness program on the topic of disability and the discrimination that people face due to that.

1. Davies, Chantal, et al. “The Equality Act 2010: Five Years On.” (2016). International Journal of Discrimination and the Law, vol. 16, no. 2–3, pp. 61–65
2. Ibid
3. Walker v. Northumberland County Council, [1995] 1 All ER 737
4. Brown v. London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, [1992] QB 333.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it can be said that the anti-discriminatory law of UK has come a long way and it has paved a smooth way to the future. While the goal of a non-discriminated world cannot be attained with the help of the current Equality Act, 2010, it can be hoped that with right criticisms and amendments, the day shall come soon.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Journals

Barmes, Lizzie. “Equality Law and Experimentation: The Positive Action Challenge.” (2009). The Cambridge Law Journal, vol. 68, no. 3, pp. 623–654

Davies, Chantal, et al. “The Equality Act 2010: Five Years On.” (2016). International Journal of Discrimination and the Law, vol. 16, no. 2–3, pp. 61–65

Hunt, Stephen. “Negotiating Equality in the Equality Act 2010 (United Kingdom): Church-State Relations in a Post-Christian Society.” (2013). Journal of Church and State, vol. 55, no. 4, pp. 690–711

McCrudden, Christopher. "British Anti-Discrimination Law: An Introduction," (1983). Penn State International Law Review: Vol. 2: No. 1, Article 3, pp. 65-97

Zabalza, A., and Z. Tzannatos. “The Effect of Britain's Anti-Discriminatory Legislation on Relative Pay and Employment.” (1985). The Economic Journal, vol. 95, no. 379, pp. 679–699

Book

Deakin, Simon. and Morris, Gillian. Labour Law (2012), 6th edn, Hart: Cambridge

Legislation

The Equality Act, 2010

Case Laws

Brown v. London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, [1992] QB 333.

Coleman v Attridge Law, (2008) C-303/06

Enderby v Frenchay Health Authority, (1992) C-127/92

Nairn v The University Court of the University of St Andrews, (1907) 45 S.L.R. 122

Roberts v Hopwood, (1925) AC 578

R. v Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, [2004] EWHC 860

Rainey v Greater Glasgow Health Board, [1987] AC 224

Tesco Stores Ltd v Mrs C Tennant: UKEAT/0167/19/OO

Walker v. Northumberland County Council, [1995] 1 All ER 737