Monday 26 September 2022
The Committee for Employment & Social Security will oppose nine out of the 11 amendments to the Prevention of Discrimination (Guernsey) Ordinance.
Amendment 1 is a simple correction of a typo in the legislation and Amendment 2 seeks to ensure protection from discrimination due to secular beliefs. The Committee will support both of these amendments.
The Committee believes that the majority of the remaining nine amendments are either unnecessary and will oppose them on that basis, or it will consider laying its own alternative amendment to seek to address issues where there appears to be a lack of clarity.
Amendment 8, which seeks to make businesses of five or fewer employees exempt from the need to make reasonable adjustments for a disabled person and from the protected ground of carer status, is the most strongly opposed by the Committee.
Deputy Peter Roffey, President of the Committee for Employment & Social Security, said:
'Amendment 8 is the one the Committee is the most opposed to as it takes out of the Ordinance the duty to remove or reduce barriers for people with disabilities from an awful lot of businesses. It substantially weakens the protection for disabled people and carers that the Ordinance was intended to achieve, and which the States has given a commitment to provide since November 2013. The Committee believes that would be an unacceptable watering down of the law and do a disservice to disabled islanders and carers who have long waited for this protection.'
