New Legal Employment Protection for Over 250,000 Employees
Released on = December 30, 2005, 3:46 pm
Press Release Author = TheJobHelper.com
Industry = Small Business
Press Release Summary = New law passed closes legal loophole and ensures employment protection for over a quarter million employees. These new legal rights will ensure that certain individuals will not be treated unfairly by employers and organizations.
Press Release Body = FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 02/01/2006
New Legal Job Protection for Over 250,000 Employees
London, England - Jan 02/06 - Over a quarter of a million employees with serious health conditions have new legal rights ensuring they will not be treated unfairly by employers and organizations.
Individuals diagnosed with cancer, HIV and MS, but not yet showing signs of their illness, will now be protected for the first time under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 2005. This means that employers and organizations providing services to the public will not be able to discriminate against employees diagnosed with disabilities such as cancer, HIV or MS.
What this does is close a significant loophole in the previous law. Until now, it was possible for employers and organizations to treat employees who have been diagnosed with a serious illness unfairly. There was nothing these people could do because their illness did not fall under the legal definition of a disability. Experts in the Human Rights field have argued that this is an injustice and that individuals with serious long-term health conditions should not be discriminated against. They seem to have gotten their wish in Great Britain and hope that this will set a trend in other countries with similar laws.
As well, these changes mean that individuals with mental health conditions will have improved access to justice services. The problem with the current laws is that before a person can receive legal protection, people must prove that they have a mental impairment that has a "substantial and long-term impact" on their lives. In addition, they must prove that the impairment is "clinically well recognized" before a case falls under the disability discrimination legislation. This is different from individuals with a physical impairment who are not burdened with these requirements. These requirements have now been removed from the law.
The Disability Discrimination Act 2005 also introduces additional changes that give extra protection to disabled individuals. These include the extension of the DDA to private clubs with 25 or more members, sanctions for publishers of discriminatory adverts, a more simple process for people who think they have been discriminated against when using services and new protection for local authority councilors.
This new law is not just toothless legislation that makes no significant changes to the lives of real people. The new law protects and supports people facing unfair treatment at the same time they are also having to cope with significant changes and obstacles in their life. The law will help allow people to stay at work where they can and to get the full range of public and private services that every individual deserves. --- Mr. JG Cote is an employment consultant with extensive experience in the employment and human resources field. He is the developer of The Job Helper website which serves as a vast resource for job, career and employment information. To learn more about this news release or other related topics visit his website at www.TheJobHelper.com .
2022
