Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 8 July 2004
46 Ms B. Moynihan-Cronin asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if his attention was drawn to the suggestion made by the chief executive of the Equality Authority that the public and private sectors should have stronger equality provisions to help prevent discrimination and promote equal treatment of workers; and if he intends to act on the suggestion. [20735/04]
View answerThe Employment Equality Act 1998 came into operation on 18 October 1999. It already contains comprehensive anti-discrimination workplace provisions directed at all employers in the public and private sectors. The 1998 Act contains detailed provisions aimed at promoting equality and combating discrimination and is based on the principle of equal treatment and non-discrimination in the workplace. The Act will be further enhanced by the enactment of the Equality Bill 2004 that transposes the following EU equality directives: the Race Directive 2000/43/EC; the Framework Employment Directive 2000/78/EC; and the Gender Equal Treatment in Employment Directive 2002/73/EC.
The 1998 Act prohibits discrimination in relation to employment on nine grounds, namely, gender, marital status, family status, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, race and membership of the Traveller community. The Act is comprehensive and deals with all areas relevant to employment including access to employment, conditions of employment, remuneration, promotion and vocational training. It also applies to certain vocational bodies namely organisations of workers or employers and organisations that control entry to or the carrying on of a profession, vocation or occupation.
The Employment Equality Act 1998 also provides for the establishment of the Equality Authority, which replaced the Employment Equality Agency. The authority's remit is to work towards the elimination of discrimination and the promotion of equality of opportunity. Since the enactment of the Equal Status Act 2000 the remit was extended beyond the employment area to cover the provision of goods and services. The authority also provides information to the public on the Employment Equality Act 1998; the Equal Status Act 2000; the Maternity Protection Act 1994; the Adoptive Leave Act 1995 and the Parental Leave Act 1998.
The Equality Authority has broad powers to tackle discrimination and to promote equal treatment in the workplace. This includes its power under section 67 of the Employment Equality Act 1998, in cases which it considers to be of important principle, to assist a person in taking a case under the Employment Equality Act. The Equality Authority is also empowered under section 69 of the Employment Equality Act 1998 to invite a business, group of businesses or industrial sector to carry out an equality review and-or prepare and implement an equality action plan and may itself carry out a review and prepare an action plan for that particular business, group of businesses or industrial sector. It is also empowered under section 85 of the Employment Equality Act to act in referring a case to the equality tribunal where it considers: discrimination or victimisation is being generally practised; discrimination or victimisation has occurred but the individual concerned has not referred the case; there is a failure to comply with an equal remuneration term or an equality clause either generally or in a particular case; an advertisement for employment is published or displayed which indicates or might reasonably be understood to indicate an intention to discriminate; a person has procured or attempted to procure another to do anything constituting discrimination or victimisation; and a person has procured or attempted to procure another to break an equal remuneration term or an equality clause.
Recently the CEO of the Equality Authority suggested, at the launch of its 2003 annual report, that a statutory duty be placed on public bodies with a view to mainstreaming equality. The suggestion was considered in the context of preparation of the Equality Bill 2004. Regard was also given to section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 that creates a statutory obligation on public authorities in Northern Ireland to carry out their functions with due regard to the need to promote equality of opportunity in relation to religion and political opinion; gender; race; age; martial status; dependants; and sexual orientation. The Northern Ireland authorities commissioned an independent review of the implementation of section 75 focusing on how public bodies responded. The Equality Commission for Northern Ireland is obliged to carry out a review of the effectiveness of section 75 next year. It would be wise to await the outcome of these reviews before further considering the creation of a similar legal obligation in this State.
