The Government has published draft legislation to amend the Equality Act 2010 with effect from 1 January 2024. The Equality Act 2010 (Amendment) Regulations 2023 codify certain EU-derived discrimination protections which would otherwise have disappeared at the end of this year due to Brexit.
Amendments include:
- The right to claim indirect discrimination by association (to cover a person who does not hold the relevant protected characteristic but suffers the same disadvantage at the hands of the employer’s PCP as those who do have that characteristic)
- An amendment to guidance on the definition of disability to state that consideration of a person’s ability to participate fully and effectively in working life on an equal basis with other workers is relevant when looking at ‘day-to-day activities’.
- A ‘single source’ test for establishing an equal pay comparator (the idea that an equal pay comparator can potentially work for a different business so long as the body responsible for setting terms is the same)
- An extension of direct discrimination protection to cover discriminatory statements made about not wanting to recruit people with certain protected characteristics even where there is no active recruitment process ongoing and no identifiable victim.
- Confirmation that employment discrimination on grounds of breastfeeding falls under the protected characteristic of sex.
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