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Equality Issues

Introduction | Good Practice and Inclusion | Government Statements and Committments | Protecting your rights | Relevant Organisations and Bodies | Employment Cases and Vocational Training | Pensions | Past Campaigns and Information

"Employers who breach the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 in respect of discrimination on gender reassignment grounds will be liable in the same manner they would, for example, for discrimination against a woman on grounds of sex."
Government guidelines on the The Sex Discrimination (Gender Reassignment) Regulations 1999.

[top]Introduction

Current Issues and Strategy:

Following the decision of the European Court of Justice in the case of P vs S and Cornwall County Council in 1996, discrimination in the workplace because a person was transsexual became unlawful under the European Equal Treatment Directive/1976, and consequently the Sex Discrimination Act 1975.

The Sex Discrimination (Gender Reassignment) Regulations in 1999 formally transposed this ruling into UK domestic law. It is now illegal to discriminate against someone who ‘intends to undergo, is undergoing or has undergone gender reassignment’. The comparator is the trans person themselves as if they were not transsexual.

Although the implementation was restricted to Parts I and II of the Sex Discrimination Act (covering employment and vocational education but not the provision of goods, service and housing), and although the implementation was limited with a number so-called “Genuine Occupational Qualifications” (exceptions to the rule) this legislation has had an enormous effect on the economic security of transsexual people in Britain since it came into force.

Above all, this legal advance forced employers to take the effort to discover how easy it really is to accommodate people undergoing gender transitions in the workplace. Employers have also discovered the benefits of recruiting and retaining people with good skills, even when they are transsexual. Some organisations (such as the Metropolitan Police) have even advertised specifically for transsexual recruits. In this sense Britain’s trans people have already therefore achieved an enormous and enduring social advance on the back of a legal one.

The Gender Recognition Act 2004, strengthened Sex Discrimination protection for those transsexual people who have obtained legal recognition through the granting of a Gender Recognition Certificate by disapplying the aforementioned Workplace Genuine Occupational Qualifications in those circumstances.

In spite of these advances, trans people in the UK still remain vulnerable to discrimination and harassment in many forms - most notably the continued absence of formal legal protection against discrimination in the provision of goods, services, facilities and housing. On record, the Government has promised that it intends to legislate in this regard within the forthcoming Single Equality Act, planned for late 2007. Legislation MUST also be in place by 21st Dec 2007 in order to comply with the deadline for the relevant EC directive, which is already in force elsewhere in Europe. The Discrimination Law Review has been set the task of investigating the implications and framing the necessary legislative clauses. There are fears, however, that this is primarily an exercise in defining exceptions to the otherwise universal principle of non-discrimination. Press for Change is actively engaged in negotiations with the DLR team.

In parallel with the Discrimination Law Review (a DTI responsibility) a separate “Equalities Review” is underway, chaired by Trevor Phillips (in a personal capacity). The interim report on this review is disappointing in that it only serves to highlight the paucity of available data about trans people’s marginalisation and harassment in society. Press for Change activists took part in all of the Equality Review team’s public consultation events around the country and this has led to some further work to professionally catalogue triggers for deprivation in the first ever research of its kind.

The Commission for Equality and Human Rights CEHR) begins operations in April 2007, replacing the EOC and DRC (and later the CRE). As well as covering the remit of these organisations, the CEHR also has responsibility for the new strands of discrimination legislation (sexual orientation, religious belief and age). Press for Change is continuing lobbying to avoid trans people’s concerns becoming invisible in this process. Activists around the country are regularly invited to make their issues known at public events, so that the CEHR get used to remembering their Human Rights responsibility towards us as well.

Last but not least, the forthcoming “Gender Duty” will place a responsibility upon public bodies to actively ensure the inclusion of trans people in all of their activities, at the same time as promoting the equality of men and women in general. The EOC is completing a guidance document to help organisations address that burden in full; PFC leaders have therefore been involved in consultation during the drafting process.

All these activities and more therefore mean that Press for Change has a great deal of work still to do, and there are many ways in which people can play a part.

How we campaign in this area:

As explained above, we work in this area mainly by -

  • Involving ourselves as consultants in the places where policy is made and legislation is drafted
  • Taking an active part in all public consultation activities
  • Working in any ways possible to educate people about the real issues trans people face
  • Offering training and consultancy to employers and those who professionally advise them (eg ACAS, EOC)
  • Collecting and collating evidence of problems from trans people themselves
  • Providing professional advice to lawyers working on cases likely to produce legal clarification or advances

Who is involved:

  • Christine Burns works with bodies such as ACAS, EOC and Liberty in this area, providing training for case workers, a PFC view on issues, and generally liaising with these contacts. She is also responsible for encouraging PFC activists to attend and contribute to consultation events and to provide examples of real life experiences.
  • Angela Clayton has the background of being a former chair of The Gender Trust and has served three terms with the TUC LGBT Committee.
  • Tracy Dean has over 20 years experience working with the trans community including six years as chair of The Gender Trust. She has particular expertise in the civil registration system and administers this website.
  • Stephen Whittle is our legal specialist, advising both Civil Servants and lawyers as a Professor of Equality and Human Rights Law.

How people can help:

There are many occasions at the moment when we need trans people to be able to play a part by attending public consultation events (or write in to written consultations) and simply “tell it like it is” from their own experience. In this respect EVERYONE is an expert.

Trans people or others with public speaking skills can help by using the resources we provide in order to freshen up their knowledge of the subject and then take part in educational talks for employers bodies, union groups, or anyone who’ll listen. We can never do too much educational outreach.

Tell us about your experiences. Write a short (2-300 word max) account of an example of discrimination or harassment which you have experienced because you are a trans person (see contact details on front page).

[top]Good Practice and Inclusion

Public Sector Gender Duty

Equality Monitoring

[top]Government Statements and Committments

[top]Protecting Your Rights

  • New CRB Procedures (2002)
  • Transsexual people in the workplace: A code of practice (2001)
    These guidelines were produced as part of the work of the UK’s Parliamentary Forum on Transsexualism, chaired by Dr Lynne Jones MP
  • A guide to the Sex Discrimination (Gender Reassignment) Regulations 1999 (48 Kb)
    These guidelines are published by the Dept for Education and Employment
  • Employment tribunal awards to trans people in the UK (employment tribunals were formerly known as industrial tribunals)
  • Problems at Work? The Press For Change guide to pursuing a claim for discrimination on the grounds you are intending to undergo, undergoing or have undergone Gender Reassignment.
  • HRA — Changing Lives: This report by the British Institute of Human Rights (www.bihr.org) brings together 15 case studies that demonstrate how the Human Rights Act is being used beyond the courtroom to make a difference to everyday life in the UK. It directly challenges the misperception that the Act is only for lawyers, or ’chancers’ seeking to frustrate our criminal justice system. Instead this report reveals how the Human Rights Act is being used in practical ways by people to challenge poor treatment in public services, precisely as the Government envisaged when it passed the Act in 1998. Some of the examples cited could easily be transposed to the experiences encountered by trans people in their lives.

[top]Relevant Organisations and Bodies

  • ACAS - Advises employers on employment law and good practice.
  • Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) - Has now assumed responsibility for the promotion and enforcement of equality policy from autumn 2007
  • Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) - Is overseeing the work of the Equalities Review.
  • Department for Trade and Industry (DTI) - Responsible for the Discrimination Law Review
  • Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) - Responsible for promoting the equality agenda relating to gender (and trans people) until the CEHR takes over.
  • Liberty - One of the UK’s leading human rights and civil liberties organisations. It was founded as the National Council for Civil Liberties in 1934 and has campaigned for equal rights for over 70 years. Liberty and Press for Change are affiliated to one-another and the organisation’s lawyers have worked with us closely on many cases related to trans discrimination in all its’ forms.
  • Women and Equality Unit (WEU) - A part of the DTI specifically concerned with gender equality. Published the current good practice guide relating to the employment of transsexual people

[top]Employment Cases and Vocational Training

[top]Pensions

[top]Past Campaigns and Information

In 1998 the (then) Department for Education and Employment (DfEE) undertook a disastrously handled public consultation in response to the ECJ ruling on the P vs S and Cornwall County Council case. These pages record what happened and how PFC finally managed to bring the Government to the negotiating table for the first time. It was through these events that Civil Servants and Ministers learned the value of talking to PFC’s knowledgable and professional leaders. We retain these pages here for historical interest, showing just how far we have come in a few short years.

Our original advice to transsexual people was published in 1996, immediately after the European Court of Justice ruling concerning the P vs S and Cornwall County Council case and before UK law had been explicitly set out in the Sex Discrimination (Gender Reassignment) Regulations of 1999. This advice has nowadays been overtaken by the kinds of documents you will find in the “Good Practice and Inclusion” section (above) but we are retaining it here because the principles still apply and it has important historical interest for the campaign.

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