After the General Election...

 

A few weeks ago, the new government had suspended the implementation timetable for the Equality Act. The suspension was then lifted  and the government have confirmed that October 2010 remains the first implementation date. These “on and off” decisions  reflect the political discussions going on behind the scenes between the coalition partners. 

We are therefore organising a training conference in September 2010 about all these matters, including:-

·       A new slant on Single Equality Schemes and Impact Assessments

·         Public Procurement and Equality Contract Compliance for the private sector when seeking public contracts

·         The implementation date of October 2010

·        The extension of Associated Discrimination to the diversity   strands

·         The tidying up clauses bringing the existing equality laws together

But there will be debates and decisions not only about the State Retirement Age and Default Retirement Age (see above) but also:-

  • Conservative objections to equal pay audit measures and Liberal Democrat support for them
  • The socio economic duty
  • The "tie breaker" for interview panels - discretion for positive discrimination
  • Various draft codes of practice around issues such as whether vegetarians should be included within the Religion and Belief regulations

Against this backcloth, the coalition parties are agreed that:-

  • There will be a cap on immigration numbers through an amendment to the Asylum and Immigration Act
  • The welfare to work reforms impacting on incapacity claimants and those receiving job seeker's allowance allied to citizenship requirements for people of this country will continue apace and speedily
  • There will be no Conservative attempts to jettison the Human Rights Act and correspondingly no Liberal Democrat attempt to campaign for entry into the Euro or seeking to have further UK legal powers ceded to Brussels during the lifetime of this new parliament.
  • A relaxation of the Working Time Directive

QED Training are organising a one day training conference in Manchester in September which will focus on the known and breaking news around that time on all these issues. With expert guest speakers, networking opportunities and free toolkits to cope and engage with the emerging new world of work and service delivery for all sectors, we can promise you a lively and stimulating event. Get in touch for more details.