Harman defends positive discrimination plans

The Equality Minister defended plans to encourage firms to discriminate in favour of female and ethnic minorities job candidates.

The new Equalities Bill is also expected to force employers to disclose salary structures in a bid to make the pay gap between men and women more transparent.

Responding to criticism that the plans could discriminate against white men, Ms Harman said "you don't get progress if there isn't a bit of a push forward".

The minister told GMTV: "Most women are going out to work and they are just as committed to their jobs - the money that they earn is important to the household budget so they should be paid fairly.

"Yet listen to this figure - if you are a woman working part-time you get 40% less per hour on average than a man working full-time.

"Now either this is because women are not up to the job or else there is discrimination against them. You can't challenge discrimination when it's kept swept under the carpet.

"I think there's a lot of resentment at the unfairness against women. They are not being given the facts."

She added: "There might be controversy but you don't get progress if there isn't a bit of a push forward."

The Bill, details of which were being outlined today, will also seek to stop pensioners being denied NHS treatment because of their age.

Ministers want to stop elderly people being patronised by doctors following complaints of pensioners being fobbed off by GPs and denied health, travel and car insurance.

Although age discrimination will be outlawed in the provision of goods and services, doctors will still be able to refuse older patients treatment if they believe there are sound clinical reasons to do so.

It is thought that the Bill will underpin a culture change which will put ageism on a par with racism.

The new legislation is aimed at tackling "harmful" age discrimination, and not banning systems which have benefits for the elderly, such as free bus travel.

The law is not expected to affect companies like Club 18-30 which only sell goods to customers of a certain age.

Ministers hope the Bill will promote a new era of openness on pay following pressure from trade unions for mandatory pay audits to make sure women are not receiving less money than men for doing the same job.

The Bill will also introduce rights for breastfeeding mothers to feed their babies in public.

Liberal Democrat youth and equality spokeswoman Lynne Featherstone said: "If the Government genuinely wants to tackle equality it must do more to end the growing discrepancy between the rules on pay for the public and private sector.

"Without compulsory pay audits for the private sector these proposals will represent a very real victory for the hawks in the cabinet.

"Public sector equality rights are fast becoming an ivory tower that private sector employees can only dream of.

"A few tick-box questionnaires for Government suppliers on their equality policy are going to do little to change the day-to-day opportunities for the 20 million people who work in the private sector."

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