UK Employment Law Coffee Break: Join our next webinar, equality call for evidence, and neonatal leave and pay

Managing your people: Essential insights and immediate actions

Please join us at our next Eating Compliance for Breakfast webinars focusing on "Managing your people". On Tuesday 6 May, our specialist workforce solutions team will be looking at the impact of new regimes for using staffing companies, zero-hours agency workers and umbrella workers and on Thursday 8 May, legal director Phillip Chivers and associate director Natasha Burridge will be looking at employment law in 2025, providing essential insights and actions for employers.
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Government publishes call for evidence on equality reforms

As part of its ongoing employment law reforms, the government has published a call for evidence on reforms to equality laws. The call for evidence encompasses both evidence and views about areas of the existing legal framework to help better understand how the law is working in practice, as well as evidence and views on areas of possible equality law reform that the government is considering.  

Strengthening equal pay

The government has made clear its commitment to reforming equal pay laws, with the call for evidence noting that despite the current equal pay framework having been in place for over 50 years, equal pay has still not been achieved, the current equal pay framework prohibiting pay discrimination on basis of sex is "often inaccessible", and those who suffer pay discrimination on the basis of race or disability "face significant barriers to pay justice".

It therefore seeks evidence and views on:

• The prevalence of pay discrimination on the basis of race and disability: In particular, the government notes that "the different patterns and scenarios that may be experienced by different groups should be accounted for" with the example given of performance-related pay or bonus schemes that may discriminate against disabled employees but are less likely to in relation to racial discrimination – it therefore welcomes "evidence as to where these patterns and scenarios may differ in relation to pay discrimination on the basis of one of these protected characteristics as compared to others".
• Making the right to equal pay effective for ethnic minority and disabled people: This could mean enabling new avenues for race and disability claims (which currently rely on the existing discrimination provisions), such as the ability to make comparisons with colleagues doing work that is different but of equal value, and new remedies, such as permanent changes to workers' contracts. Close consideration will be given to whether "the existing equal pay scheme provides the right model for an expanded set of equal pay rights" and whether instead there should be "an amended version of the scheme, or whether a different approach may be best".
• Measures to ensure that outsourcing of services can no longer be used by employers to avoid paying equal pay: With the existing legislation preventing many outsourced workers from comparing their contractual terms with those of "in house" employees, the government is exploring "potentially enabling comparisons between outsourced workers and 'in house' employees in equal pay claims" but giving careful considering as to how best to define the scope of these protections, including where liability for equal pay claims made by outsourced workers should lie.
• Improving the enforcement of equal pay rights by establishing an Equal Pay Regulatory and Enforcement Unit, with the involvement of trade unions: The call for evidence notes that there are a number of ways that a new unit could strengthen equal pay provisions "whether by building on the EHRC's existing role or through new functions".

Pay transparency

Noting that current legal requirements for pay transparency are limited to gender pay gap reporting, and where there has been an equal pay breach, equal pay audits, the call for evidence also seeks views and evidence to better "understand the impact of increased pay transparency on women, people from ethnic minority backgrounds, people with disabilities and other groups in the workplace" and notes that measures to improve pay transparency can involve employers:

• Providing the specific salary or salary ranges of a job on the job advert or prior to interview.
• Not asking candidates about their salary history.
• Publishing or providing employees with information on pay, pay structures and criteria for progression.
• Providing employees with information on their pay level and how their pay compares to those doing the same role or work of equal value.
• Identifying actions that they need to take to avoid equal pay breaches occurring or continuing – including considering extending the requirement to undertake equal pay audits to race and disability discrimination.

However, the call for evidence expressly recognises that some of these steps would not always be a "straightforward process for employers and that some can involve a cost burden". Careful consideration will therefore be given as to whether additional pay transparency measures would be proportionate and effective in improving pay equality.

Strengthening protection against combined discrimination

The call for evidence expresses the government's concern that the current legislative framework does not provide adequate protection for people who experience discrimination based on a combination of protected characteristics. As the law stands, discrimination claims would need to be brought based on each separate protected characteristic, even if they relate to a single alleged act of discrimination meaning "it can be difficult and complicated to get a legal remedy". Examples are given of alleged discrimination faced by a Muslim women or women experiencing the menopause where the less favourable treatment is because of their particular combination of protected characteristics.

The Equality Act 2010 contains a statutory provision prohibiting direct discrimination because of a combination of two protected characteristics (combined discrimination) but which has never been brought into force. The government is committed to taking steps to implement it and is now seeking evidence and views on doing so.

Creating and maintaining workplaces and working conditions free from harassment

The Employment Rights Bill already contains a number of provisions strengthening protections against sexual harassment and harassment in the workplace. These include a power for regulations to be introduced specifying matters which employers must take or have regard to when taking steps for the purposes of the statutory sexual harassment provisions.

However, "better evidence of what actually works to reduce sexual harassment in the workplace is needed" and the government is therefore seeking "evidence of effective steps employers can take to reduce and/or prevent sexual harassment and where work to strengthen the evidence base should be prioritised".  

The government is also looking at the relevant considerations were it to extend the scope of the legislative protection preventing sexual harassment to cover volunteers.

Ensuring the Public Sector Equality Duty is met by all parties exercising public functions

The government is also seeking views and evidence on the extent to which non-public bodies exercising public functions are complying with the requirements of the Public Sector Equality Duty in having due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between different people in the exercise of those functions, and whether there are barriers preventing them from doing so or additional steps necessary to enable compliance.

Implementing the socio-economic duty

Finally, the call for evidence seeks evidence to support the implementation of the socio-economic duty in England.

The socio-economic duty requires specified public authorities, when making strategic decisions such as deciding priorities and setting objectives, to give "due regard" to how their decisions might help to reduce the inequalities associated with socio-economic disadvantage. Being "socio-economically disadvantaged" means living in less favourable social and economic circumstances than others in the same society. This can include having a low income or living in a deprived area. The decisions that public authorities could make, may be, for example, in education, health or housing.

It will be for public authorities subject to the duty to determine whether they might be able to reduce any socio-economic inequalities through their decision making.

Next steps

The call for evidence closes on 30 June 2025 and will be significant in how equality protection continues to be shaped by the current government. While employers have been anticipating the government's review of the current equal pay regime and its extension to race and disability and regulations supporting the sexual harassment preventative duty, up until now it was not clear whether or not it would be pursing further reforms around pay transparency (other than the proposed race and disability pay gap reporting which is currently the subject of a separate consultation) and combined discrimination.  

Back in 2022, the Conservative government in power at the time confirmed that it did not intend to implement the combined discrimination provision in the 2010 Act as it believed the protection under the existing protected characteristics to be adequate and that introducing combined discrimination would bring unwelcome regulatory complexity and place new costly burdens on businesses and the public sector. It will be interesting to see how the current government addresses the inevitable concerns that businesses will have should it proceed with its proposal to bring combined discrimination into force. However, other jurisdictions have implemented similar measures, including Belgium in 2023, and it may be that the UK will now follow suit.  

New guidance published on statutory neonatal leave

The new statutory right to neonatal leave and pay came into force on 6 April 2025. The government has now published guidance covering a range of issues relating to the new right, including a guide for employers explaining how the new statutory right works, together with other guides that include how the new entitlement affects different types of employees and workers, and how to calculate an employee's statutory neonatal care payment. Acas has also published guidance for employers.

Please contact your usual Osborne Clarke contact to discuss how we can support you in ensuring that managers and employees understand the new entitlement, including introducing a neonatal leave policy or revising any existing policy in this respect to reflect the statutory rights.