Women: the case for a single equality law

Submitted by Anon on 12 July, 2007 - 12:47

By Maria Exall

The media reported that the Government is planning to change the law to help women gain equal access to membership benefits of golf clubs. You could have been forgiven for thinking that the Green Paper on reforming equality laws was a trivial matter. In fact it is the beginning of the long awaited consultation on a Single Equality Act which could consolidate, upgrade and extend the current mishmash of equality laws in the UK, and make law which truly help us get greater equality in the workplace and in wider society. Such a law has been the aim of trade union and equality campaigners for many years.

Since the Race Relations Act and the Sex Discrimination Act of the 1970s there has been increased rights for many workers who suffer prejudice and discrimination. Most recently we’ve seen European Directives on anti-discrimination on the basis of age, sexual orientation and religion and belief come into effect. It is hoped that a Single Equality Act would upgrade and “level up” the different “strands” of equality law and give greater protection for all. The duty on public bodies to promote equality on the basis of race was recently extended to gender and disability — an example of “levelling up”.

A Single Equality Act could also clear up anomalies such as the religious exemptions to the Sexual Orientation in Employment Regulations and other legal protections for lgbt people where religious institutions are allowed an opt out on “doctrinal” grounds.

Some areas of a Single Equality Act would help women. Central to demands for legal reform has been for a shift away from the individual challenges to the ability to take collective (“class”) action. This would massively help women who are unable to take the individual cases in areas of law that are untested.

Despite the Daily Mail caricature of the remorseless advance of the monstrous regiment of women, the Equal Pay Act is flawed and ineffective. Currently it takes an average of ten years for an individual equal pay case to be concluded and even if successful, it only rewards the individual woman who had the perseverance to take fight for it. The fact that the Equal Pay law requires an actual male comparator in the same workplace makes it difficult to pursue pay justice at work.

The TUC has also campaigned for compulsory equal pay audits of companies to push forward the case for equal pay. This is the sort of legal right that would have a practical effect in negotiations and action in the workplace. The right to have access to the pay rates of employees and to identify where the equal pay problem starts is vital if trade unionists are to have a strategy for winning improvements for millions of working women.

The Labour Government has a record of introducing improved equality legislation over the past 10 years however they have held up the implementation of a Single Equality Act. Consultation on this Act was delayed until after the establishment of the single Equality and Human Rights Commission, when many long argued it would have made more sense to introduce an Act and then appoint a Commission to implement it. It is thought that the current lukewarm nature of the Green Paper is a consequence of this half hearted commitment.

Also the Government’s most recent equality initiative for women, the Women and Work Commission does not augur well for the future of the Single Equality Act. Here any seriously progressive changes were vetoed by employers’ representatives. The only significant parts of the Commission reports call on the public sector to improve and make no such demands on the private sector. And the Report appeared to blame low pay for women on the sort of jobs women chose! The new Act must deliver something much better.

The important issues of gender segregation in the workplace, low pay, sexism, prejudice against women with children, against older women and women with disabilities can only be tackled by organising against these discriminations. Equality law that helps organised labour to fight for women workers is an essential demand for socialists.

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