Positive Discrimination And Employment Law

The Guardian has recently reported that women are in the minority at board level in FTSE listed organisations, and that the Government is now calling for large corporations to make sure that 25% of their board members are female by 2015.

However, this may not be as simple as the Government suggests. Even given the recent changes instituted by the Equality Act, positive discrimination in the workplace is not lawful, which means that women cannot be appointed to board positions over a man simply because women are not fairly represented in such roles.

While a woman can be promoted over a man if the two are equally matched, employers are not legally entitled to put in a place a policy of positive action in order to fulfil a "quota" of female board members.

Employers who seek to heed the Government's call and increase the level of...