Equality Act 2010 Essay

1.3 HOW EFFECTIVE DO THE EQUALITY ACT 2010 & HUMAN RIGHTS ACT 1998 PROMOTE SUBSTANTIVE EQUALITY

Janes (2012) after exactly two years the Equality Act 2010 was enacted confirmed that the Act has been effective in promoting substantive equality through anti-discrimination and human rights in the workforce. However, the law and process to pursue individual human rights still remains complex (Janes, 2012). For example, employees taking and making claims seem to be a difficult road to tread upon since employers are generally highly resourced and sometimes use such opportunity to frighten clients into submission. Employers often push their employees to settle cases for much less than they are worth by threats of costs against them. Moreover, most employees also entertain the fear of losing their jobs and therefore

One of such is Cloisters.com (n.d.) who argues that the Equality Act 2010 has had significant improvement on the disability discrimination law and has shown a tremendous impact in the workforce through its important contribution and changes to the disability discrimination law.

In my personal opinion, the Equality Act 2010 does not go far enough since not all professions are completely satisfied by the Act. In politics for instance, political parties are exempted from the sex discrimination law allowing them to shortlist all men or all women candidates. This clause created by the Sex Discrimination (Election Candidates) Act 2002 extends until 2030.

Another instance where the Equality Act 2010 is refuted was on the reform of the monarchy. Roman Catholics refused the Equality Act 2010 for the reason that the Church might in future be prosecuted by the Act for refusing to allow women, married men, transsexual people, and gay people into the priesthood. Imposing the Act on the Church again in my view is an infringement on the religious beliefs of the Church violating the Religious Belief Discrimination