ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by looking at the origins of UK discrimination laws, noting that earliest legislation, the Equal Pay Act 1970, represented the government’s response to industrial action taken by women workers who were being paid less than male colleagues doing similar work. The chapter then turns to consider how the law developed around concepts of non-discrimination, direct and indirect discrimination, together with the principle of no less favourable treatment. These concepts are explained and the key legal cases are reviewed. The chapter then discusses whether the law has been effective in countering discrimination and notes that the complexity of the law and the difficulties faced by applicants taking cases means that the likelihood of success is very low. The public sector duties not to discriminate, initially introduced into race discrimination legislation and gradually extended to other strands of discrimination, are not covered in this chapter, but are discussed in full elsewhere (see Conley, Chapter 2).
