Analyzing the Equality Act 2010: A Case Study of Fencastle Bistro

This report analyzes the Equality Act 2010 through a case study involving Fencastle Bistro, where a disabled individual and his family experienced discrimination. The report defines the Equality Act 2010, highlighting its protections against discrimination based on disability, age, and breastfeeding. It examines the responsibilities of service providers like Fencastle Bistro, detailing breaches of the act, such as denying access to facilities and breastfeeding rights. The report explores elements of the act for making reasonable judgments and adjustments, emphasizing the legal ramifications of non-compliance. It concludes that Fencastle Bistro breached the act, offering insights into the legal recourse available to the affected individuals. The report references relevant literature and legal frameworks to support its analysis, providing a comprehensive understanding of the case and the application of the Equality Act 2010.

Law

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY/FINDINGS...............................................................................................................3
Relevant characteristics of equality act 2010 to the case of Jenny and Tom.........................3
Meaning of equality act 2010 and its duty in respect to Fencastle Bistro..............................4
Breach of the equality act 2010..............................................................................................4
All elements and guidelines of equality act 2010 for making reasonable judgement............5
Situation to breach equality act 2010 and link with the case has Fencastle Bistro breached the
act...........................................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Law refers a system of some rules which a country recognizes as regulating actions of
their members (Geyer, Jambeck and Law, 2017). It is a combination of some rules which
describes some processes and way of behaving with others. This present study is going to show
all duties and elements of equality act 2010. This is based on a case of Tom who is not able to
walk and run as his both legs are paralyzed. Due to his disability, manager of a restaurant
Fencastle Bistro treat unfairly to Tom and his wife and his friends. So, this study shows all
situations in which people should be given equal rights and all organizations who are responsible
to provide equal and fair treatment to people in order to identify the result and judgment.
MAIN BODY/FINDINGS
Relevant characteristics of equality act 2010 to the case of Jenny and Tom
Equality act is all about protecting people against discrimination on the basis of their
colour, gender and other minority of groups. As per the case of Jenny, Tom, Dmitri and Paulo, it
is state that a restaurant Fencastle Bistro made some unfair treatment with them because of the
size of the wheelchair of Tom who was not able to walk as he was paralyzed (Fell and Dyban,
2017). So, as per the protection characteristics it can be analyzed that whether all these applied to
Jenny, Tom, Dmitri and Paulo or not. Some protected characteristics of equality act 2010
include:
Age: One of the main feature and characteristic of this act is it protects people with all age
group. But there are some case in which different treatment only because of age is not unlawful
direct or indirect discrimination. So, it is just one of the protected characteristic which allows
employers of organizations to justify their direct discrimination.
Disability: Under this act of equality 2010, those people who are whether mentally or
physically disable or not able to perform their day to day works as like normal person than they
are allowed to use telephone and public transport, As per this act employers of an organization
are also allowed and have responsibility to make adjustment for staff to support them overcome
disadvantage resulting from impairment (Protected Characteristics of Equality Act 2010, 2019).
It is also the main protection characteristic of this act is to completely protect people
against discrimination arising from disability. This discrimination on the basis of disability is
completely unlawful when an individual or employer know that person has disability.

So, as per the disability protected characteristic of this equality act 2010, it can be clearly
said that this is applicable to Tom who is disable and he has rights to fight against those who
have treated unfairly with him.
Meaning of equality act 2010 and its duty in respect to Fencastle Bistro
Equality act 2010 is an act which legally protects people against discrimination in their society as
well as in workplace. It shows all some ways which are unlawful and unfair treatment. This
single act has covered many of the other previous acts such as: sex discrimination act, race
relation act and disability and discrimination act (Cameron and et.al., 2019). It also describes
some situation in which people are being protected from discrimination such as:
 When people are at workplace
 When disable or any type of people use public services;.
 When people use other some organizations such as: restaurants, cinemas and shops.
 When they use transport
 When people join a club or association and when people have contact with any kind
of public bodies.
There are some duties and guidance of services providers which explains that what
people are required to do to meet all requirements of this law and protect them against lawsuit).
As per the duty and scenario of this act, a service provider and organizations whose main aim is
to please customers like hotels, tourism industries are responsible for what they have done
(Disabled Guests and Key Facts of Equality Act 2010, 2018). If some other person do something
which is not lawful. This act also states that hotels or service providers are liable to provide
access to goods, facilities and services to disable guests and also important to make sure that they
are being treated as like other normal customers. It is considered an unlawful act when a
manager of an organization refuses access to goods and other accommodation to disable person.
So, as per the all situations and duties discussed in this act, it can be said that Fencastle
Bistro is responsible for discriminating Jerry, Tom and their friends. This restaurant is a service
provider or a restaurant so, it comes under the list or situation covers in equality act 2010.
Breach of the equality act 2010
As per the equality act 2010, it is an unlawful when an individual or people deny to a woman or
discriminate unfavorably when she is breastfeeding. This is applied to all those who provides

services to their guests, facilities, benefits as well as premises to public bodies as well as
education bodies. It includes all those services providers’ organizations as well who direct deals
with customers and for them it is important to give equal and fair treatment to women. To not
discriminate and harass a woman because she is breastfeeding (Grant, 2016).
As per the discrimination, it includes some situations and all those acts which are known as
discrimination such as: to deny a woman to provide a service, providing them a lower standard
of services. So, as per this a restaurant and manager of café cannot ask to a woman to stop
breastfeeding or to go outside or to cover up or providing services (Breastfeeding and Equality
Act 2010. 2018). In addition, it is also stated that a woman can breastfeed her child in shops,
buildings, while using public transport, restaurants and hotels.
So, as per these all situations of this act, it can clearly be said that Fencastle Bistro
breached the act by refusing Jenny (wife of Tom) to not breastfeed in Bistro and go outside for
this. There is no age is given for this. So, as per the law, Jenny has right to file a case against
Fencastle Bistro because they denied her to breastfeed in the restaurant by saying that other
guests will feel uncomfortable. Due to this jenny had to go outside for breastfeeding to her child
Annabel which may create some problems.
All elements and guidelines of equality act 2010 for making reasonable judgement
In the context of disabled person or all those people who are not able to perform their day
to day activities just because of either mental or physical disability. Employers, as per the
equality act 2010 are required to make a reasonable adjustment to any type of element of the job.
As per the reasonable adjustment hotels and other organizations are required to deliver their
services which can make easier for people who are disabling. This duty is anticipatory which
means manager requires considering this situation in advance as how they can make their
services accessible to disabled people (Disabled Guests and Key Facts of Equality Act 2010,
2018). There are mainly 3 requirements by which people or service providers can make
reasonable adjustments such as:
Adjustment to a policy: As per this it is important for organizations to monitor and
develop policies of organizations in order to make sure if they do not deny disabled people to
access resources and other things.

Involve provision and services: As per this organizations need to accelerate that what
auxiliary services need to make available to disabled individuals in order to make them
beneficial and improving their morale.
Physical features: As per this, it is a duty of an organization or service provider to remove as
well as provide a way which avoids any type of physical barrier which can make difficult for
disabled people to make an effective use of services (Anderson-Cole and et.al., 2017).
So, as per the above discussed all requirements, it can be said that Fencastle Bistro did not
follow any one of this. As per their policy, they asked to Tom to not use washroom because his
wheelchair was too big and they also said that it will create problems for other guests
Situation to breach equality act 2010 and link with the case has Fencastle Bistro breached the act
There are mainly 4 ways by which an individual can discriminate a people because of their
disability and age. Direct, indirect, harassment and victimization. As per this act a person who
are disable and feel discriminated by service providers, their employees and other people only
because of they are not able to perform their activities than they have rights to file a lawsuit
against that person. As an individual it is important to follow all guidelines and all those things
which are lawful and ethical as per this act. When people do not follow guidelines and
discriminate people than it is called breach of the act. When people take an undue advantages of
it than it is known breach of the act (Gould, 2016). In the case of Tom and Fencastle Bistro, it
can be said that manager of the restaurant did not take undue advantage but definitely
discriminate Jenny as well as Tom. They deny to Tom to not to use their washroom only because
his wheelchair was too big and it will create some problems for other guests They also said to
jenny (wife of Tom) to not breastfeed their child because it may make other guests feel
uncomfortable so, they said to Jenny to go outside if she wants to breastfeed her child. As per the
equality act 2010, a woman has right to breastfeed her child in a restaurant and any public place.
So, denying Jenny as well as Tom because of disability, Fencastle Bistro breached the act.
So, it can be concluded and said that jenny and her husband and all their friends Dmitri and
Paulo can take a legal action against the restaurant (Gardiner and Riches, 2016).
CONCLUSION
From the above study, it has been summarized that equality act 2010 played a vital role as it
protects all those people who are not able to perform their work as like normal person because of

their age, their disability and other factors. It has discussed all those situations in which an
individual has right to seek for equal and fair treatment as like others and also have right to file a
case against those who treated them unfairly. Further, it has also shown situations in which
people can breach equality act and all those situations in which they cannot. It has discussed
some penalties which people have to pay if they breach the act.

REFERENCES
Books and journal
Anderson-Cole, L. and et.al., 2017. Health assessment, case management and rehabilitation.
In Contemporary Occupational Health Nursing (pp. 109-137). Routledge.
Cameron, H. and et.al., 2019. Equality Law Obligations in Higher Education: reasonable
adjustments under the Equality Act 2010 in assessment of students with unseen
disabilities. Legal Studies. 39(2). pp.204-229.
Fell, E. and Dyban, M., 2017. Against Discrimination: Equality Act 2010 (UK). The European
Proceedings of Social & Behavioural Sciences EpSBS. 19. pp.188-194.
Gardiner, S. and Riches, L., 2016. Racism and homophobia in English football: The equality act,
positive action and the limits of law. International Journal of Discrimination and the
Law. 16(2-3). pp.102-121.
Geyer, R., Jambeck, J.R. and Law, K.L., 2017. Production, use, and fate of all plastics ever
made. Science advances. 3(7). p.e1700782.
Gould, J.P.D., 2016. Equality Act 2010: Law, Reason and Morality in the Jurisprudence of
Robert P. George.
Grant, A., 2016. “I… don’t want to see you flashing your bits around”: exhibitionism, othering
and good motherhood in perceptions of public breastfeeding. Geoforum. 71. pp.52-61.
ONLINE:
Protected Characteristics of Equality Act 2010. 2019. [ONLINE] Available through: <
https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/hr/equality/focus/2.5491/protected>.
Disabled Guests and Key Facts of Equality Act 2010. 2018. [ONLINE] Available through: <
https://www.visitbritain.org/business-advice/disabled-guests>.

Breastfeeding and Equality Act 2010. 2018. [ONLINE] Available through: <
https://maternityaction.org.uk/advice/breastfeeding-in-public-places/>.