What the Equality Act means for people living with HIV

The Equality Act came into force on the 1st of October 2010.  Below is an overview of the legislation and, in particular, a summary of the key changes that will help to improve protection against discrimination for people living with HIV.

The new Act includes an end to employers asking pre-employment health-related questions to candidates during recruitment, which is really important for 
people with long-term health conditions looking for work or looking to change jobs.

Equality Act 2010

Discrimination legislation has played a vital role in helping to make Britain a more equal society since the 1970s.  Inequality and discrimination still remain challenges to many people in our society and the aim of the new Equalities Act is to bring together the different strands of the existing Discrimination Acts into a unified and consistent framework of law.

The intention is to update, simplify and strengthen the previous legislation, protecting people from unfair treatment and promoting a fairer and more equal society.

Summary

• Provision of the basic framework for protection against direct and indirect discrimination, harassment and victimisation in private and public services including on premises, work, education, associations and transport. 
• Extending protection from indirect discrimination to include disability. 
• Equalising protection for people discriminated against because they are perceived to have, or are associated with someone who has, a characteristic that could be subject to unfair treatment.
• Introducing a new concept of “discrimination arising from disability”, to replace protection under previous legislation lost as a result of a legal judgment. 
• Increasing the thresholds for the duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people. 
• Making it more difficult for disabled people to be unfairly screened out when applying for jobs, by restricting the circumstances in which employers can ask job applicants questions about disability or health. 
• Extending protection from third party harassment
• Extending protection in private clubs to sex, religion or belief, pregnancy and maternity, and gender reassignment. 
• Introducing new powers for employment tribunals to make recommendations which benefit the wider workforce. 
• Improving provisions allowing voluntary positive action.