Amicus calls for a new single equality act

Amicus has launched its negotiators guide on equality for their workplace reps at their annual Equalities Conference in Blackpool.

Amicus representatives will be discussing how to achieve equality at work for Black and minority ethnic, disabled, LGBT and young members at Amicus' National Equality Conference in Blackpool.

Derek Simpson, Amicus General Secretary said: "The Government must take more action to create equality in the workplace. The pay gap is still too big, women are still concentrated in lower paid jobs and it is clear that the voluntary approach is not working. It is time for a real change in the workplace."

Amicus representatives have been working hard to negotiate equality in the workplace and Amicus continues to build on this work by recruiting more BME, disabled, LGBT and young members to the union.

Siobhan Endean, Amicus Head of Equalities added, "Amicus demands that the Government takes action to reduce the 50% unemployment rate for disabled people. Our Amicus Disability Champions are working hard to reform the workplace and negotiating disabled access, but could do so much more if equality representatives had statutory rights."

The Government has implemented a whole new agenda in the field of equality since coming to power in 1997, but there is still a long way to go and much more to be done to make equality a reality for working people in the UK.

Amicus has also got a strong campaign to tackle homophobia in the workplace and our negotiators' guidelines in this area emphasises the importance of employers developing policies in this area and ensuring that they are implementing them in practice.