Equality Act 2006 – Gender Equality Duty
The Equality Act 2006 amends the Sex Discrimination Act of 1975 and the Equal Pay Act 1970 (as amended by the Employment Equality (Sex Discrimination Regulations 2005), and places a statutory duty upon public authorities when carrying out their public duties to have due regard of the need to:·
- Eliminate unlawful discrimination and harassment
- Promote equality of opportunity between men and women.
The above requirements are known as the general duty and this places a proactive responsibility upon all public bodies to ensure that their services, practices and policies are developed with the different needs of women and men in mind. This will lead to a more inclusive society with high quality contemporary services – targeted to meet the specific needs of men and women.
The authority has not written a Gender Equality Scheme as the Duty was not accepted by the Welsh Assembly Government as being sufficiently robust. The Gender Duty will though be an integral part of the Authority’s Single Equality Scheme that will be developed in 2009. Although not having a Gender Equality Scheme in place, the Authority has demonstrated it’s commitment to Gender Equality by carrying out a full Job Evaluation and Equal Pay Audit to ensure Equality between male and female staff.
Sex Discrimination Act 1975 (as amended)made discrimination unlawful in the following areas:
- Employment and access to training
- Education
- The provision of goods, facilities, and services to members of the public.
The Act determined three types of discrimination:·
- Direct Discrimination, which occurs when one person is treated less favourably on the grounds of their sex.
- Indirect discrimination, which occurs when a requirement or condition, which cannot be justified on objective grounds, is applied to men and women equally but has the effect, in practice, of disadvantaging a higher proportion of one sex.
- Victimisation which occurs when an employer treats an employee less favourably as a result of raising a complaint of sex or marriage discrimination or assisting another person to complain.
