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Driving Equality!
Over the last 12 months, the Birmingham & West Midlands Regional Equality Forum has pushed
equality issues to the top of the agenda wherever possible. The forum has continually promoted equalities at events in the
region, including the Hope Not Hate Campaign, Birmingham Gay Pride, Give Racism the Red Card, Young Members' Football
Event and the Women Chainmakers' Festival where GMB members really stood out with a brand new equality banner. As a result
of these efforts, the region was presented with the President's Leadership Award at Congress 2010.
The award continues the region's proud history in the equalities arena. Birmingham and
West Midlands was the first Region to form an Equality Forum, and also the first Region to put forward a constitution for
it. This means we are now able to elect every two years, and also set out rules and regulations for the forum. Once again,
our region has been leading the way.
Regional Equality
Forum Members.
The following is a list of members who was elected to sit on the Regional Equality Forum, congratulations
to all those elected and we wish them well in their new roles.
Tony Hughes
Gordon Richardson
Sharon Harding
Carly Sowden
Blazey
Gorski
Brian Adams
Kevin Chester
Jim Kay
Paul Bowman
Elaine Dailey
Stuart Harrison
Roger
Jones
Warinder Juss
Stevie Robertson
Derek Sparks
Kim Young
The New Equality Act 2010
A snapshop of the legislation that came into force in October Association
The new addition to the Equality Act 2010 protects people who are discriminated
against because of their association with someone with a protected characteristic such as age, disability or race. Health-related
Another key new provision of the Act covers the issue
of health-related questions being asked in job interviews. Employers may only ask about health-related issues to help decide
whether they need to make reasonable adjustments as part of the selection process. Harassment
Employers are now liable for harassment by third parties, and not just harassment
by other employees. So a black care worker who is subjected to racist abuse by a service user may have a discrimination claim
if their employer does not take appropriate action.
Reasonable
Adjustments
In order to establish that someone is disabled. It's no longer necessary for employees to show
that their condition affects mobility, manual dexterity, speech, hearing, eyesight or ability to concentrate. Disclosure of information
A
female employee can ask a male colleague to disclose pay information to find out whether she has an equal pay claim, even
if their contracts forbid them from doing so. Witnesses to Harassment
A misconception about the Act is that it allows any employee offended by something said by a colleague to go to
a tribunal. A witness to harassment to go to a tribunal. A witness to harassment might take a claim but only if they can show
that the conduct was related to a protected characteristic, such as sexual harassment, and the conduct violated their dignity
or created a hostile environment.
If you are interested in further information,
please contact Gillian Whittaker GMB Regional Equal Rights Officer on 0121 550 4888.
Information is also available from Tony Hughes.
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