The TUC yesterday called on the UK government to implement the Equality Act in full on its tenth anniversary. The Equality Act became law on 1 October 2010.
The union organisation is also challenging ministers to show how they have delivered on the legal duties in the act in their response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
It protects working people from discrimination based on age, sex, disability, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation, marriage or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, or gender reassignment. It was also designed to improve the lives of working class people through tackling inequality, but that part of the act, the socio-economic duty, was never brought into force.
The TUC is concerned that ten years since it was introduced, the full powers of the act have still not been implemented. And there is little evidence that the government is fulfilling its legal duty to consider the impact on inequalities in the decisions it makes.
The TUC says that Covid-19 has deepened inequality and discrimination at work, and is calling on the government to:
- Bring the socio-economic duty into force: This was included in the original act but never implemented. It would require government and the public sector to deliver better outcomes for lower income people and make narrowing inequality a priority.
- Reintroduce protections subsequently taken out: Previous governments have stripped away protections that were originally in the Equality Act – such Section 40, which would make employers liable for harassment of their employees by customers or clients. The union body says that in the current situation where hostility and assaults on retail and hospitality staff are increasing during the pandemic, this should be reinstated urgently.
- Publish equality impact assessments for all government policies, as the law requires: in particular, the government should publish every equality impact assessment that they carried out to inform their response to Covid-19 – and should be held to account for those that are missing.
TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Everyone has the right to respect and equal treatment at work – and in wider society.
“The Equality Act should have been a gamechanger. But ten years on, it still isn’t fully in force. Now is the time for the government to implement it in full.
“The pandemic has shown that the UK is still riven with discrimination.
“Black workers are more likely to be in frontline jobs with inadequate PPE – and more likely to die. Pregnant and disabled workers are too often first in line for redundancy. And the disappearance of much childcare provision has left women struggling to hold on to their jobs.
“Without the protection of Section 40 of the Equality Act, staff have less protection from abuse and harassment. Yet during the pandemic, we have seen a rise in hostility and assaults on shop workers and hospitality staff.
“Britain can be a more equal, more prosperous country. Equality must not be an afterthought for ministers.”