From April, treating different genders equally becomes a public authority duty

The Gender Equality Duty [GED] is a legal requirement from April 2007 requiring all public authorities to promote gender equality and eliminate sex discrimination.

From implementation the duty places the legal responsibility on public authorities to actively demonstrate that they treat men and women fairly. The duty will not just affect employment rights but pervade all policy making as well as public services, such as transport and housing provision.

In employment practices such as recruitment and flexible working will need to take account of gender equality. Instead of depending on individuals making complaints about sex discrimination, the public authority will be required to demonstrate it has taken active steps to deal with discrimination on gender or face a Judicial Review of their practices.

Why do we need the Gender Equality Duty?

The GED will bring about real change in the culture of organisations as the onus will be on organisations to promote equality, rather than on individuals to highlight discrimination

More than 30 years after the introduction of the Sex Discrimination Act [SDA], there is still discrimination. Ten years after all local authorities reached the single status agreement to equalise pay between male and female workers a disgraceful two thirds of local government employers have failed to achieve parity between their male and female workers despite signing an agreement in 2004 assuring employees they would have done so and compensated them for their lost back-pay by 31st March 2007.

Many of Britain's poorest paid local authority workers are now each owed thousands of pounds by their council employer. Their cumulative loss countrywide is estimated at up to £5bn.

The rights of individuals do not oblige organisations to promote equality. The GED will bring about real change in the culture of organisations as the onus will be on organisations to promote equality, rather than on individuals to highlight discrimination.

If you believe your local authority has not met its obligations, you may be eligible to claim parity as a right thus achieving an immediate pay rise, and up to six years, compensation for the back pay you have lost. Our Equal Pay Team will work on a No Win No Fee basis to help you recover your claim. Contact us now for an immediate free evaluation...

Who has to comply with the Gender Equality Duty?

The general duty applies to all functions of every public authority. This includes councils, schools, hospitals and police authorities as well as central government departments. The definition of a public authority is 'any person who has functions of a public nature’ which is the same approach taken within the Disability Discrimination Act 2005 and the Human Rights Act 1998. Because this definition is used the organisations covered by the general duty are not set out in a list.

The gender duty applies directly to certain private or voluntary sector bodies when they are carrying out public functions on behalf of the state. An example of this is a private company who transports prisoners. Public bodies are still covered by the duty when services are contracted out to external organisations. This could include community transport, stationery or catering services.

What will public authorities have to do?

Public authorities will also have to look at their employment policies to see how they affect women and men. Some gender issues they may have to think about are:

• Is there a pay gap between men and women doing the same job or jobs of similar value?
• How could flexible working help staff and how will it benefit men and women?
• How do we recruit staff and are we likely to get a good gender balance of candidates?
• Do we have a gender imbalance? If so, how could we try and rectify the situation?
• Do we have a good return rate from maternity leave? If not, why and how can we improve?

Public authorities will also need to look at how their employment policies affect transsexual men and women. Some issues they may have to think about are:

• Do their Equal Opportunities policy and harassment policy cover trans people?
• Do their practices and procedures support the dignity and privacy of trans people?  For instance, when the organisation requests identification from employees, does it restrict it to items such as birth certificates. If so, a transgender person may have to inadvertently reveal their original sex against their wishes as they may not have been able to obtain a corrected birth certificate.
  
• Do they have a policy on supporting employees who are undergoing gender reassignment? For example, do they have a system to support existing staff who intend to "transition" whilst at work? Have they thought about the issues this could raise?
  
• Do they encourage job applications from the trans community? For instance, have they got policies and procedures that would put obstacles in the path of prospective employees who may want to work for you?

For more information, please visit http://www.eoc.org.uk/employment

Free legal advice direct to your inbox: Ask Law Answers your equal pay legal question.