| Laws aimed at controlling the system of rewards within the financial sector, giving agency workers the right to equal treatment with permanent staff and addressing the gender pay gap feature in the Queen's Speech, which sets out the Government's legislative agenda for the coming year.
There is no guarantee that the Bills and regulations set out in the speech will become law, bearing in mind the limited time available for them to pass through the parliamentary process. This session of Parliament must end by June 2010 and a general election is expected in early May 2010.
The Equality Bill (on the 10 Downing Street website), which has been carried over from the previous parliamentary session, includes measures to:
- introduce a new equality duty for the public sector, bringing together the three existing duties and extending to gender reassignment, age, sexual orientation and religion or belief;
- extend the scope to use positive action;
- introduce gender pay reports, which will initially be on a voluntary basis for private employers with more than 250 employees and mandatory for public authorities with more than 150 employees; and
- consolidate existing discrimination legislation into a single Act.
The Agency Workers Regulations (on the 10 Downing Street website) will give agency workers the right to equal treatment with permanent staff on pay, annual leave and other basic terms and conditions after twelve weeks in a job. The Regulations will also give agency workers the right to equal access to facilities such as on-site childcare and information about vacancies.
The Financial Services Bill (on the 10 Downing Street website) includes measures to take action on remuneration within the financial sector to achieve more effective risk management. The Financial Services Authority will also be given an extended remit and more explicit objectives.
The Bribery Bill (on the 10 Downing Street website) will create new criminal offences relating to bribery in the UK and abroad, in the public and private sectors. The Bill will create a new offence of bribery of a foreign public official to obtain or retain business. It will also introduce a corporate offence of failing to prevent such bribery being carried out on behalf of a commercial organisation.
- Queen's Speech Read the full text of the Queen's Speech, which was delivered after the official state opening of Parliament and set out the Government's forthcoming legislation, on the 10 Downing Street website.
- Queen's Speech 2009 - full list of Bills Read more details of the Bills and regulations in the Queen's Speech, on the 10 Downing Street website.
Also
The XpertHR forthcoming law section details some of the proposed changes highlighted in the Queen's Speech:
Single Equality Act is introduced A Single Equality Act, which is intended to provide a simpler, more consistent legal framework for preventing discrimination, is introduced.
Government launches consultation on Temporary Agency Workers Directive The Government has said that the Agency Workers Regulations 2010 will come into force on 1 October 2011. |