Much ado about nothing: UK Equality Bill

The new ‘Equality Bill’ has certainly got the UK talking as public sector employers must now account for inequalities regarding gender pay; ethnic minority employment and disability employment. But what has really got people shouting is the extension of positive action as employers “can take into account, where they feel it is appropriate, when selecting between two equally qualified candidates, under-representation of disadvantaged groups, for example women and people from ethnic minority communities”. What are they worried about? Could that statement be any more ambiguous? It changes nothing; recruitment and selection will still be the subjective domain of employers and their recruiters.

On the subject of all women shortlists, the directives are just as wishy-washy – “....extend the permission to use women-only shortlists in selecting parliamentary candidates...” It seems the only time that the language is definitive is when talking about ethnic minority shortlists, as government will “not legislate to allow for ethnic minority shortlists at this stage”. It's not that I am not advocating the use of women-only shortlists, as there are advantages and disadvantages to these schemes which merit a full exploration of the issues. But if the government is serious about doing something positive to reverse institutional and structural discrimination, the Equality Bill in its current state (despite strengthening the law for transsexual people, pregnant women and disabled people) is woefully inadequate. So the majority of the UK population can chill out, because the status quo remains, it is business as usual.