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Equality Bill rushed through Parliament

The Equality Bill was sent for Royal Assent on 6 April, during the parliamentary “wash-up”, and has now become law.

There was a possibility that, because it was rushed through Parliament before the general election, concessions would have been made to some of the amendments proposed by the House of Lords. But it passed through the final stage unchanged and will come into effect from October.

The Act includes changes to the use of pre-employment questionnaires and the requirement for large organisations to reveal gender pay disparities. It is a comprehensive Act designed to replace previous equality laws in a single piece of legislation.

However, the Age and Employment Network told Payroll World it was disappointed that the mandatory retirement age remains. Speaking to Payroll World, its chief executive, Chris Ball said: ‘Obviously it’s good news and there will be a number of very important provisions in the legislation…but one thing which is missing is a lift on the mandatory retirement age.

‘I am expecting that all the parties will look at the issue of mandatory retirement ages. The Government has committed to looking at what should now replace it,’ he added.

The organisation believes that more than just straightforward legislation is required to resolve the issue of mandatory retirement ages. Mr Ball said there must be a cultural shift with ‘emphasis placed on companies to carry out comprehensive age profiling among their work force. The shift in the way in which older workers are viewed will be moved by dialogue and discourse.’

The House of Lords had made an attempt to fast-track the abolition of the default retirement age through the Equality Bill but this failed. The Lords withdrew a proposed amendment to the bill in January, because they were anxious the law would not be passed onto the statute books before the election.

19/04/10