Lack of vision could mean missed opportunities

Today The Employers Forum on Age (EFA) responds to the Single Equality Bill green paper and calls on the Government to be brave and talk to employers before missing the opportunity to inspire real change.

Sam Mercer, Chief Executive of the EFA comments: ìThere is clearly an urgent need to address the massive inequalities faced by older people in the provision of public services, particularly in accessing appropriate health and social care. However, introducing far reaching legislation, which would require a raft of exemptions, is too blunt a tool to solve these complex issues. The Government should enter into proper discussions with the relevant parties in this area, rather than get distracted by creating law which would expect fish and chip shops to objectively justify a discount bag of chips.

ìAnyone who has chosen to respond to this consultation green paper will surely agree with me when I say that it has been too much to digest, in too little time. As a result, I believe there will be too few responses from employers who have really been able to engage in the issues raised, to make for a meaningful consultation process.

ìEFA members have spent the past three months grappling with an enormously complex and frankly vast green paper, which attempts to cover many disparate issues. Three months, straddling the summer holidays, just hasnít been long enough for relevant parties to really get to grips with the proposals. This Government-imposed timetable ñ which is totally unnecessary ñ could significantly hinder their ability to get this legislation right. This really should be of concern to everyone as a low quality consultation will impact on the quality of the laws created.

ìIn the last few years alone a huge variety of discrimination legislation has been introduced (age, religion & belief, sexual orientation) and a raft of duties has been placed on the public sector (gender, disability, race). If we want a new act which really simplifies the legislative framework and is ëfit for the 21st centuryí we need to allow time to establish what does and doesnít work with the fledgling legislation we already have.

ìOur members believe that a failure to effectively engage with employers and properly debate the issues in the run up to the creation of the green paper has led to a lack of will to embrace the opportunity a review of legislation presents.

ìThere are also some missed opportunities in this green paper. Simply incorporating equal pay legislation without taking the time to radically review it in the light of the problems it presents to employers and lawyers is a mistake. Likewise, a fuller debate on the impact of equality legislation on some of the hierarchies of disadvantage which have developed over the past 30 years would really have been enlightening.

ìWhen the age discrimination regulations were developed there was extensive engagement of employers and this lead to much better legislation. This has not happened here and we believe these proposals are the poorer for it. Employers must be seen as partners in delivering equality not a barrier.î