UK Government say firms must favour women and minorities

by Dave Keating | June 26, 2008 at 04:09 am

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Equality minister Harriet Harman has set out a plan to allow British firms to discriminate in favour of female and ethnic minority job applicants. The new plan would not require firms to do so, but would allow them to if they so desired. The new Equalities Bill would first apply to England, and then Wales and Scotland.

The Government was today outlining plans to promote equality at work, including plans to favour female and ethnic minority candidates if there is a tiebreak for a job vacancy.

The new Equalities Bill is expected to order public sector employers to disclose levels of pay to both sexes in their organisation, to cast light on the pay gap between men and women.

The Bill will also seek to stop pensioners being denied NHS treatment because of their age, and give mothers the right to breastfeed their babies in public.

The measure likely to prove the most controversial encourages companies to favour female and ethnic minorities candidates if there is tiebreak for a job vacancy. Critics say that this will discriminate against white men - supporters of the measure say that the balance is already tipped in white men's favour.