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'Dual discrimination' proposal for equality bill
HR News |
02/07/2009
People who are discriminated against because of two separate characteristics could receive greater protection in the equality bill, the government has announced.
Currently, workers can only bring a claim against their employer for matters relating to a single issue, for example their age, race, sex or religion.
However, Vera Baird, solicitor general and equality bill lead minister, is worried that some people have stereotyped views about individuals who fall into more than one of these groups, such as religious men or black women.
For this reason, the government is seeking to introduce a clause which would protect against "dual discrimination".
This would mean people could make a single claim for sex and race discrimination, or any other combinations.
Ms Baird said: "This clause would provide protection for people who at present would have to guess on what basis they have been discriminated against, wholly outside their dignity.
"Business will benefit if all the issues in one case can be dealt with together and there will be better access to justice for all."
Recently, Race for Opportunity's annual equality index revealed that only 4.3 per cent of board level employees are from an ethnic minority.
This is despite the fact that this group makes up 8.5 per cent of the UK's total workforce.
Posted by John Lynes.
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