The Government has proposed the creation of a single
piece of equality legislation that it hopes would streamline and
simplify the area for workers and employers. The consultation
process ended yesterday, but human resource workers' body the
Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has
criticised the plans.
"This green paper runs the risk of delivering a compliance based
model that will entrench a box-ticking approach to produce minimum
standards in diversity," said Dianah Worman, diversity advisor for
the CIPD. "If Government is serious about stopping the
marginalisation of people in the labour market then it must show a
greater willingness to work with employers to develop a piece of
legislation that will actually work."
The CIPD said that the proposals do not reduce the burden on
employers in dealing with the complex issues of diversity. It said
that the new law does not simplify the issue for employers.
"The consultation misses an opportunity to be more radical in
its proposals even against the background of the simplification of
regulation in employment generally," said its submission to the
Government. "Employers are in any case unlikely to recognise a
package on the lines proposed as ‘simplification’, since there will
be areas in which additional responsibilities are imposed on them
and even where greater consistency is on offer it will often come
at the price of greater uncertainty about outcomes."
The CIPD said that recent research it had conducted found that
employers are most concerned with the passing of bad law, and that
the law is a main driver of changes in relation to workplace
diversity. "It needs to be designed to ensure that it supports
progress effectively rather than create confusion and lead to
unintended consequences," said the submission.
In her introduction to the consultation process Secretary of
State for Communities and Local Government Ruth Kelly said that the
fact that the law had developed over such a long period meant that
it needed to be changed.
"Because the law has grown up and developed over such a long
period, it is necessary to review where we have got to and whether
there is room for simplification and modernisation," she said. "We
have to ask if we can legislate with greater clarity and more
consistency."
The CIPD said in its submission that the proposals are not
radical enough. "Although some sensible suggestions have been made
for removing inconsistencies we think that there is a need for more
radical proposals for a Single Equality Act," it said. "It is the
very difficulties presented by the current legal models that call
for a more radical approach capable of helping employers to
progress diversity in the 21st century."
"Getting this Bill right is essential if it is to support the
progress of diversity," said Worman. "But more importantly still,
Government need to ensure any such legislation goes hand in hand
with a concerted approach to promote best practice on the basis of
a clearly argued and properly evidenced business case for
diversity."
