Review wants wide-ranging reform of women’s rights
The UK legal system is failing women and needs fundamental reform, a report from the Fawcett Society’s Sex Discrimination Law Review (SDLR) Panel of legal experts finds.
Sex discrimination law review explores eight themes and makes recommendations for improvement. The review finds that women remain disadvantaged in the workplace: the gender pay gap varies across women’s working lives, while the right to equal pay for work of equal value has yet to be achieved across the board.
Flexible working rights allied with strong maternity, paternity and parental leave rights are necessary in allowing women to participate in the workforce and support fathers. However, the review points to the estimated 54,000 pregnant women and working mothers who are made redundant or pressurised into leaving their jobs each year
The recent press coverage has once again put sexual harassment in the workplace in the spotlight. Offenders in the workplace can be third parties, such as clients or customers.
The review points out that section 40 of the 2010 Equality Act provided protection to employees in these cases, but it was repealed in 2013 by the Conservative-Liberal coalition government.
The review has 25 recommendations just on these issues and include the reintroduction of section 40.
The other themes explored in the review are: Brexit, violence against women, hate crime and misogyny, promoting equality, access to justice, multiple discrimination and sex equality in Northern Ireland (see Labour Research, March, page 21 for more coverage).