Structure – Single Commission
1. The EEF supports the proposal that, in the longer term, there should be a single statutory commission offering integrated comprehensive advice, guidance and support on equality matters.
2. This is especially important in view of the fact that, with the forthcoming legislation on age, religion or belief and sexual orientation, there will be additional equality strands. The EEF believes that, in view of the increasing number of strands, it is essential that there be a co-ordinated approach to, and the convergence of advice on, these so as to assist employers in mainstreaming equality issues. We believe a single equality commission may best facilitate this.
3. However, we believe it would require significant effort to ensure that, from the outset, the new body did not continue to operate with separate “directorates” (sex race, disability, etc) which, in practice, replicated the existing fragmented approach. We are concerned that the outline proposal (in Part 8 of the Consultation Document) does not go far enough towards meeting this important objective and will not achieve integration at the service delivery level of the new organisation.
Promotion and enforcement
4. The EEF is mindful that the existing commissions have different reputations in the eyes of employers. Some commissions are often seen primarily as enforcement bodies, which inevitably makes employers nervous about approaching them for advice and guidance. In order to gain the benefits of a single commission it would be necessary, therefore, to ensure from the outset that any new body clearly separated out its enforcement activities from the promotion/advisory activities in order to gain the confidence of employers.
5. The EEF welcomes, therefore, as an alternative, the opportunity raised by the Consultation Document (and specifically Question 9) to suggest that there may be merit in considering whether the advisory services in relation to employment (for both employers and employees) might best be transferred to ACAS given its high profile and standing as an independent body. Also, it does not have the connotations of an enforcement body and all that follows with that. ACAS also has an existing regional structure and may very well fit as a “gateway” to the equality machinery in the employment sphere.
Human Rights
6. The EEF would not support any suggestion that the brief for a single equality commission be expanded to include more general human rights issues. As the Consultation Document points out, UK equality legislation centres on social and economic protection and the work of the existing commissions reflects this.
7. Discrimination issues are only a very small subset of the more general human rights agenda which has so many other dimensions, political, social, administrative, etc. The EEF is not convinced that there is a sufficient overlap between the discrimination and human rights agendas to justify bringing them together under a single umbrella. The EEF believes that a single commission covering human rights would be a leap too far and would lead to a loss of focus in the delivery of practical assistance to employers and employees on discrimination matters.