Prove contract’s equality, DH told

The  junior doctors’ contract could break the UK’s international obligations on equality, the statutory body responsible for enforcing anti-discrimination laws has warned. The EHRC (Equality and Human Rights Commission), which promotes and enforces legislation such as the Sex Discrimination Act, says the Department of Health ‘does not appear to have explicitly considered the impact of the contract on the right to just and favourable working’ under a UN international convention. The ICESCR (International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights), adopted by the UN General Assembly in the 1960s and signed by the overwhelming majority of countries, includes a provision, article 7, to ensure that women’s conditions of work are not inferior to men’s. The EHRC, in a submission to the UN on the UK’s implementation of the covenant, draws attention to the DH’s equality analysis of the contract, which finds there are areas where female doctors would be affected adversely but argues they were a ‘proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim’. The submission says: ‘The EHRC is concerned that the UK Government’s analysis suggests an adverse impact of the contract on groups that disproportionately include women, such as those who take time away from work for maternity leave and caring responsibilities. 'This may indicate that women junior doctors will have inferior conditions of work under the new con...
Source: BMA News - Category: UK Health Source Type: news