Employment Equality Bill

A Bill to strengthen equal pay protections; to abolish fees for employment tribunals; to strengthen the Equality and Human Rights Commission; and to raise the maximum penalties in employment law cases for larger firms.

BE IT ENACTED by the Queen’s Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows –

Section One: Definitions

(1) Acas shall refer to the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service.

(2) “Red-circling” shall refer to the practice of downgrading an employee while maintaining their pay at a level which is higher than those performing their new responsibilities.

(3) The “EHRC” shall refer to the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Section Two: Strengthening equal pay protections

(1) Claimants shall no longer be legally required to notify Acas of their intent to take their employer to a tribunal.

(2) If an employee seeks a conciliation scheme through Acas, an Acas advisor may compel an employer to participate in such a scheme if they believe it would be beneficial to the resolution of a claim with merit.

(3) An employment tribunal shall be permitted to find that a pay gap between a claimant and comparator is disproportionate to the differences in role or value between their work even if they are not found to be doing work that is exactly alike or of identical value, and in this case order restitution proportional to the gap between the claimant’s previous pay and the proportionate amount as determined by the tribunal.

(4) A claim of disproportionate pay under the previous section can be lodged either as a primary claim or as a secondary claim to another ground under the Equality Act 2010. In the latter case it should only be adjudicated if the primary claim is unsuccessful.

(5) A pay inequality that discriminates against a class protected by the Equality Act 2010 by dividing responsibilities (which must differ in their compensation) unequally between equally capable workers of different social groups shall be subject to an equal pay claim.

(6) An independent expert analysing an equal pay claim must be permitted full access to the workplace in question so long as it does not excessively disturb business, and shall be entitled to compel oral evidence from any individuals they deem necessary within working hours in order to prepare their report.

(7) If the jobs of two employees have already been positively proven to be of equal value it shall not be permissible for a separate defence claiming that a material factor which differs between the claimant and comparator such as education, effort or responsibility negates the equal pay claim to be submitted. Such claims should be raised by employers when the initial claim of like work or equal value is being heard.

(8) It shall not be permissible to cite a factor which does not differ between the claimant and comparator, such as external market forces, except insofar as it provides evidence to bolster the importance of a factor which does differ between the claimant and comparator.

(9) It shall not be permissible in any case to claim that the comparator’s pay was “red-circled” as a defence against an equal pay claim by the claimant.

(10) Where unfairly disproportionate or unequal pay has been proven under this Act or the Equality Act 2010, a judicial body shall find in the claimant’s favour whatever the mechanism by which this inequality or disproportionality has arisen unless the employer can positively prove a legal justification for the circumstance that has arisen.

Section Three: The Equality and Human Rights Commission

(1) The EHRC shall be permitted to pursue individual or joint cases in tribunals and courts for any violation of this Act or the Equality Act 2010. It shall be permitted to do so whether there is an active complaint or not, and shall be permitted to compare two non-complaining employees it believes are subject to an unlawful pay disparity in such cases. It shall also be permitted to take cases on behalf of a claimant or claimants.

(2) The previous section shall not in any way preclude the right of claimants to launch cases themselves.

(3) The EHRC shall be permitted to launch investigations pursuant to any issue it believes may constitute a case under section 3(1).

(4) The EHRC may use evidence obtained at a tribunal or court through another action to pursue a subsequent equal pay or discrimination claim against a firm under section 3(1).

Section Four: Abolition of Employment Tribunal Fees

(1) All fees for the use of employment tribunals by employees shall be abolished.

Section Five: Profit-related penalties

(1) A firm which is found in violation of an employment law statute may be subject to an alternative penalty/damages constituting a percentage of its yearly profits where it is believed that the existing maximum penalty does not constitute a substantial enough punishment or deterrent.

(2) This section shall not come into effect until the Department of Justice prepares a statutory instrument outlining equivalencies between fixed and profit-related penalties.

(3) Profit-related penalties may be levied over a number of years where a firm is judged unable to immediately pay back a penalty commensurate to the severity of the breach of the law in question.

(4) Profit-related penalties shall be levied by default on the profit obtained in the year prior to the commencement of the case unless a firm can prove by a preponderance of the evidence that a material decline in profitability unrelated to the case has occurred that warrants it using its current level of profit as the base for the payment.

Section Six: Enactment, extent and short title

(1) This act shall come into force upon receiving Royal Assent.

(2) This act shall extend to England, Scotland and Wales.

(3) This act may be cited as the Employment Equality Act 2016.

References

http://www.uklsa.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Hooten-This-a-WoMan’s-World.pdf

https://www.tuc.org.uk/workplace-issues/employment-rights/tribunal-fees-have-been-“huge-victory”-britain’s-worst-bosses

Submitted by /u/colossalteuthid, the Secretary of State for Business, Industry and Labour, on behalf of the 14th Government.

This division will end on 5 February 2017 at 01:30 GMT.

Division! Clear the bar.