NCJ Number
109448
Date Published
1988
Length
282 pages
Annotation
This book examines the key employment provisions of equality laws, comparing the experiences with equal rights legislation in Great Britain and the United States.
Abstract
The concept of equality enshrined within discrimination law and how it applies differently to women and minorities is examined, and two different strategies for achieving equality are described. Two laws which gave victims of discrimination in Britain access to tribunals for the first time -- the Sex Discrimination Act of 1975 and the Race Relations Act of 1976 are discussed. The British laws also created two commissions with wide-ranging powers, modeled on the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Commission on Racial Equality. The book discusses such issues as formal and substantive equality and the limits of these two approaches, racial job segregation, protective and equal pay legislation, indirect discrimination, development of case law, sexual division of labor, trade union involvement, pressure on employers, industrial tribunals, and case law in individual equality and indirect discrimination litigation. A central argument of the book is that although the battle for formal equality has been relatively successful, the structures of disadvantage remain intact. Tabular data, list of cases, 174 references and index.