By Katie Maguire on Small Business – Advice and Ideas for UK Small Businesses and SMEs
What does the Equality Act mean for employers?
The Equality Act 2010 was and still is one of the most important pieces of legislation for employers and employees. It is concerned with discrimination and harassment in respect of nine protected characteristics, namely: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.
Before the Equality Act came into force discrimination law was contained in different pieces of legislation.
The Equality Act gives protection against work-related discrimination, making it unlawful for an employer to discriminate against its job applicants, employees and former employees. If it does so, it will be liable for its actions. In addition, employers may also be held liable for the wrongful actions of their employees or agents. This is because under the Equality Act, anything done by an employee in the course of their employment is deemed to be an act done by the employer. This is called vicarious liability. The only defence available to this for an employer is if it can show that it took all reasonable steps to prevent the employee from doing