Sex Discrimination Act 1986



Sex Discrimination Act1986

1986 CHAPTER 59

An Act to amend the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and sections 64 and 73 of the Employment Protection (Consolidation) Act 1978; to make provision with respect to requirements to discriminate in relation to employment which are contained in public entertainment licences; to provide for the removal of certain restrictions applying to the working hours and other working conditions of women; and to repeal the Baking Industry (Hours of Work) Act 1954.

[7th November 1986]

Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—

S-1 Private households and small undertakings and partnerships.

1 Private households and small undertakings and partnerships.

(1) In section 6 of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and (2) of that section) shall cease to have effect.

(2) After paragraph (b of section 7 of the 1975 Act (cases where being a man is a genuine occupational qualification) there shall be inserted the following paragraph—

‘(ba ) the job is likely to involve the holder of the job doing his work, or living, in a private home and needs to be held by a man because objection might reasonably be taken to allowing to a woman—

(i) the degree of physical or social contact with a person living in the home, or

(ii) the knowledge of intimate details of such a person's life,

which is likely, because of the nature or circumstances of the job or of the home, to be allowed to, or available to, the holder of the job; or’.

(3) In section 11 of the 1975 Act, in subsection (1) (which deals with discrimination against a woman in relation to a position as partner in a firm consisting of six or more partners), the words ‘consisting of six or more partners’ shall cease to have effect.

S-2 Discrimination as to retirement etc.

2 Discrimination as to retirement etc.

(1) In subsection (4) of section 6 of the 1975 Act (exclusion of provisions discriminating against employees etc. in relation to death or retirement), at the end there shall be inserted the words ‘except in so far as, in their application to provision in relation to retirement, they render it unlawful for a person to discriminate against a woman—

(a ) in such of the terms on which he offers her employment as make provision in relation to the way in which he will afford her access to opportunities for promotion, transfer or training or as provide for her dismissal or demotion; or

(b ) in the way he affords her access to opportunities for promotion, transfer or training or by refusing or deliberately omitting to afford her access to any such opportunities; or

(c ) by dismissing her or subjecting her to any detriment which results in her dismissal or consists in or involves her demotion.’

(2) In subsection (4) of section 11 of the 1975 Act (exclusion of provisions discriminating against partners etc. in relation to death or retirement), at the end there shall be inserted the words ‘except in so far as, in their application to provision made in relation to retirement, they render it unlawful for a firm to discriminate against a woman—

(a ) in such of the terms on which they offer her a position as partner as provide for her expulsion from that position; or

(b ) by expelling her from a position as partner or subjecting her to any detriment which results in her expulsion, from such a position.’

(3) In section 82 of the 1975 Act (interpretation), after subsection (1) there shall be inserted the following subsection—

(1A) References in this Act to the dismissal of a person from employment or to the expulsion of a person from a position as partner include references—

(a ) to the termination of that person's employment or partnership by the expiration of any period (including a period expiring by reference to an event or circumstance), not being a termination immediately after which the employment or partnership is renewed on the same terms; and

(b ) to the termination of that person's employment or partnership by any act of his (including the giving of notice) in circumstances such that he is entitled to terminate it without notice by reason of the conduct of the employer or, as the case may be, the conduct of the other partners.’

(4) In section 6 of the Equal Pay Act 1970 (exclusions of sections 1 to 5)—

(a ) in subsection (1A)(b ) (terms related to, or provision in connection with, death or retirement). at the end there shall be inserted the words ‘other than a term or provision which, in relation to retirement, affords access to opportunities for promotion, transfer or training or provides for a woman's dismissal or demotion’; and

(b ) in subsection (2) (meaning of retirement), at the end there shall be inserted the words ‘and the reference in subsection (1A) above to a woman's dismissal shall be construed in accordance with section 82(1A) of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 as a reference to her dismissal from employment.’

S-3 Age of retirement etc.: unfair dismissal.

3 Age of retirement etc.: unfair dismissal.

(1) For paragraph (b of section 64 of the Employment Protection (Consolidation) Act 1978 (upper age limit for unfair dismissal cases) there shall be substituted the following paragraph—

‘(b ) attained the following age on or before the effective date of termination, that is to say—

(i) if in the undertaking in which he was employed there was a normal retiring age for an employee holding the position which he held and the age was the same whether the employee holding that position was a man or a woman, that normal retiring age; and

(ii) in any other case, the age of sixty-five.’

(2) In subsection (6) of section 73 of the said Act of 1978 (definitions for the purpose of the provision for reducing a basic award for unfair dismissal), for the words from ‘'the specified anniversary'’ to ‘her birth’ there shall be substituted the words ‘'the specified anniversary' in relation to an employee means the sixty-fourth anniversary of the day of his birth’.

(3) Subsection (2) above shall not affect any award for the unfair dismissal of an employee in relation to whom the effective date of termination (within the meaning of Part V of the said Act of 1978) was before the coming into force of that subsection.

S-4 Discrimination in relation to training.

4 Discrimination in relation to training.

(1) Section 47 of the 1975 Act (discrimination in relation to training by a training body) shall be amended as follows.

(2) In subsections (1) and (3)—

(a ) for the words ‘a training body’ there shall be substituted the words ‘any person’; and

(b ) for the words ‘it appears to the training body’ there shall be substituted the words ‘it reasonably appears to that person’.

(3) In subsection (2)—

(a ) for the words ‘it appears to a training body’ there shall be substituted the words ‘it reasonably appears to any person’; and

(b ) for the words ‘the training body’ there shall be substituted the words ‘that person’.

(4) For subsection (4) (definition of, and power to designate, training body) there shall be substituted the following subsection—

(4) The preceding provisions of this section shall not apply in relation to any discrimination which is rendered unlawful by section 6.’

S-5 Discrimination required by public entertainment licences.

5 Discrimination required by public entertainment licences.

(1) Nothing in—

(a ) any licence granted (whether before or after the coming into force of this section) under Schedule 1 to the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1982 or Schedule 12 to the London Government Act 1963 (public entertainment licences); or

(b ) any regulations made for the purpose of prescribing the terms, conditions or restrictions on or subject to which any such licence is deemed to be granted,

shall have effect, at any time after the coming into force of this section, so as to require any person to do any act which, apart from section 51 of the 1975 Act (acts done under statutory authority), is rendered unlawful by Part II of the 1975 Act (discrimination in relation to employment) or by so much of Part IV of the 1975 Act as relates to acts rendered unlawful by the said Part II.

(2) In this section ‘act’ has the same meaning as in the 1975 Act.

S-6 Collective agreements and rules of undertakings.

6 Collective agreements and rules of undertakings.

(1) Without prejudice to the generality of section 77 of the 1975 Act (which makes provision with respect to the validity and revision of contracts), that section shall apply, as it applies in relation to the term of a contract, to the following, namely—

(a ) any term of a collective agreement, including an agreement which was not intended, or is presumed not to have been intended, to be a legally enforceable contract;

(b ) any rule made by an employer for application to all or any of the persons who are employed by him or who apply to be, or are, considered by him for employment;

(c ) any rule made by an organisation, authority or body to which subsection (2) below applies for application to all or any of its members or prospective members or to all or any of the persons on whom it has conferred authorisations or qualifications or whom are seeking the authorisations or qualifications which it has power to confer;

and that section shall so apply whether the agreement was entered into, or the rule made, before or after the coming...

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