Law, Society & Controversy: Equality Law in Practice - UK Report

This report provides an overview of equality law, particularly focusing on the Equality Act 2010 and its impact on addressing discrimination in the UK. It discusses the unification of anti-discriminatory legislation under a single statute and examines various forms of discrimination in the workplace, including direct, associated, perceived, and indirect discrimination, as well as harassment and victimization. The report also presents case studies illustrating the application of equality law in real-world scenarios, such as disability discrimination and equal treatment of homosexuals. Ultimately, the report emphasizes the importance of equality before the law and the need to eliminate unnecessary discrimination to uphold human rights and dignity.

Law, Society and Controversy

Abstract
The equality law has unified all the legislation that was anti-discriminatory under a single
statute for the benefit of judiciary. Now, all the law has been assigned a unified status for the
benefit of those people who have faced discrimination on the hands of other person. The
unified law has made it easier for the judiciary to interpret the law relating to anti-
discrimination of the masses.
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Table of Contents
Abstract.................................................................................................................................................1
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................3
Law: The relevant law...........................................................................................................................4
Discrimination at workplaces............................................................................................................4
Ways of discrimination......................................................................................................................4
Practice: Case Studies............................................................................................................................6
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................7
References.............................................................................................................................................8
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Introduction
Law can be defined as the binding rules of conduct framed by the legislature to enforce
justice. They are man-made and not natural. Law is deeply embedded in society. Law is put
to practice by societal processes. Law needs to be changed in accordance with the changing
needs of society. Law constitutes various social institutions like family, polity and property.
The study of law and other social sciences are interrelated. The study of law and society
represents a multi-disciplinary field(Bingham, 2011). The equality act 2010 was framed in
order to protect people from discrimination. The equality act brings together all the separate
pieces of legislation into a single act. The primary purpose is to codify the numerous
complicated laws. The act simplifies and strengthens the current legislation. This act is
determined to protect individuals from unfair treatment and promotes an equal society. The
act mainly protects people from harassment, discrimination and victimisation in employment.
Before the equality law came into force there were a number of legislation that protect
individuals from discrimination. After the equality law came into force all the anti-
discriminatory statutes were unified under a single act. The main purpose of this act is to
harmonise the equality law making it easier to reinforce protection in certain situations. It
lays out ways in which it is unlawful to treat the other person in the workplace and in another
sphere of life (Chaney, 2011). The act expressly states that it is unlawful to treat a person less
favourably because of personal characteristics. The personal characteristics include age, sex,
religion, race, maternity and pregnancy, sexual orientation and disability. The act protects
individuals from discrimination at the workplace, educational institution, as a consumer,
while using public services, as a member of any club or association and while buying or
renting property.
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Law: The relevant law
Discrimination at workplaces
When any qualified person faces unfair treatment just because of his age, he is said to be a
victim of age discrimination.A person is considered disabled if his physical or mental
impairment is such as to cause substantial and long term effect on his ability and efficiency to
do work. The act provides a duty on the employer to make certain adjustments in the
workplace so as the disabled person can overcome their disadvantages resulting from
disability. Men and women having equal qualification cannot be discriminated in terms of
salary, promotions and training. Such discriminations are declared unlawful by the equality
act (Connolly, 2011). All female employees are entitled to get a pregnancy leave of 52 weeks.
Treating women differently because she wants to avail the leave constitutes discrimination.
All promotions and transfers available to a female employee, while she is on maternity leave,
should be informed to her, failure to do so will amount to discrimination. Employee if treated
unfavourably because of his nationality, colour and ethical origin constitute race
discrimination. Any employee if treated differently because of his religion constitutes
religious discrimination. No person should be differentiated based on their sexual orientation
at workplaces(Law Society, 2019). Such discrimination to persons who are gay, lesbian,
heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual constitutes sexual orientation discrimination. Treating
an employee differently because they have undergone sex reassigning operation or are
proposing to undergo such operation is considered as gender reassignment discrimination.
Ways of discrimination
The different ways of discrimination at the workplace are direct discrimination in which an
employee receives a less favourable treatment because of the presence of a protected
characteristic for example not providing additional training to a person because he is old.
Associated discrimination is said to have constituted when a person is discriminated because
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of his association with a person having protected characteristic for example when the
promotion of a female employee is bypassed because she is a mother of a disabled child
(Fredman, 2012).Perceived discrimination is when an employer treats an employee less
favourably because the employer thinks that the employee has any of the protected
characteristic for example a person even after being qualified for the job is not recruited by
the recruiter because he thinks that the person is a gay. Indirect discrimination in which
certain provisions are applied equally to all the staffs but a few employees will be at a
disadvantage as compared to others for example if all employees are asked to do overtime to
meet companies goals the females will be at a disadvantage as they mainly are in the
responsibility of childcare.Any unwanted conduct that violates the individual's dignity or
creates a hostile environment for them is considered as harassment, for example, cracking
jokes on a person's sexual orientation, sex or race(Partington, 2013). A person, when treated
unfavourably because he has supported another person to file a complaint against harassment
or discrimination, is considered to be victimised for example excluding an employee from
meetings because that employee has complained of being sexually harassed at the workplace.
The equality act protects an individual against discrimination in the workplace. That includes
recruitment, training, pay and benefits and promotion. It is unlawful for the employer to ask
regarding protected characteristic at any stage of employment or re-employment. As per the
act, the employee is under no obligation to disclose information regarding health, sex,
religion, marital status or any other disability. However, under the reasonable adjustments
clause, the employee needs to disclose certain facts so that the employer can make certain
adjustments to ensure that the employee has access to all the facilities in the workplace
(Kirton and Madunic, 2009). Under the genuine occupational requirement, the employer has
certain rights to place restriction while hiring employees. Airlines and bus companies may lay
down mandatory retirement because of the safety requirement.
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Practice: Case Studies
The case “City of York Council v B J Grosset” depicted that the court of appeal confirmed
that the dismissal of an employee for misconduct can lead to discrimination arises from the
disability in such situations. It will be applied even if the employer is unaware of the
connection between the underlying disability and relevant conduct. The employee was the
head of English at the school and suffering from the cystic fibrosis. The employer has all the
information and accepted its disability as per the Equality Act 2010 (Numhauser-Henning
and Rönnmar, 2015). Initially, the employer made an adjustment to his job schedule in order
to maintain his health needs. The change in management strategies with new targets and
initiatives increases the workload. The employee suffered from stress and his health was also
affected. During the acute stress period, he decided to take a decision of showing an 18 rated
horror movie to the students without informing the school or parents. The employee was
dismissed and disciplined for the misconduct. The management considered but did not accept
the idea that the decision of showing the movie was due to the stress or other health issues.
The employee stated that the actions of his employer amounted to inappropriate treatment
due to his disability. Thus, according to the employment law discrimination arises under
section 15 Equality Act. There was a causal connection between his stress levels and actions
that was the result of the underlying conditions and new working requirement(Zander, 2015).
The case of Tadao Maruko v. Versorgungsanstalt is a landmark decision regarding the equal
treatment of homosexuals. The judge ruled that the payment of widower’s pension under
occupational pension scheme was to be considered a part of the employed person’s salary and
hence no discrimination can be made on the ground of sexual orientation with regard to
employment and employment-related benefits.
In the case “O’Brien v Bolton St Catherine’s Academy" a teacher was sick and not able to
carry his job for more than one year and the court of appeal stated that an employer has the
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right of dismissing an employee for the long term leave for sickness. The decision was
particularly valuable for human resource professionals who have to manage the employees
having long term sick leave. The court clearly stated that the employers are not being
expected to wait for the employees forever which mean recovering from the illness
(Monaghan, 2007). The dismissal is considered to be a valid possibility. However, the court
warned the employer he has to consider the disruption to the business which was being
caused to the absenteeism. Ultimately, the employer lost the case of disability discrimination.
The key factor for the losses what the employer was not able to provide a note that the
employee provided between the decisions of dismissing an appeal against the dismissal.
Conclusion
The equality act has provided a unified anti-discriminatory statute. The earlier enacted laws
were brought under one roof. Discriminating one on the basis of a protected characteristic
violates the human right he is entitled to and derogates the dignity of that very person. All
people are equal before the law and no unnecessary discrimination should be made to
differentiate them.
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References
Bingham, T. (2011). The rule of law. 2nd ed. London: Penguin Books.
Chaney, P. (2011). Equality and public policy. 4th ed. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.
Connolly, M. (2011). Discrimination law. 5th ed. London: Sweet & Maxwell.
Fredman, S. (2012). Discrimination law. 4th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kirton, J. and Madunic, J. (2009). Global law. 4th ed. Farnham: Ashgate.
Law Society (2019). The Law Society. [online] Lawsociety.org.uk. Available at:
https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/ [Accessed 30 Mar. 2019].
Monaghan, K. (2007). Equality law. 5th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Numhauser-Henning, A. and Rönnmar, M. (2015). Age discrimination and labour law. 5th
ed. Alphen aan den Rijn: Wolters Kluwer.
Partington, M. (2013). Introduction to the English legal system. 4th ed. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Zander, M. (2015). The Law-Making Process. 7th ed. Oxford: Hart Publishing.
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