Of the nine protected groups in the Equality Act 2010, ‘gender reassignment’ is probably the least often encountered and worst understood, but is increasingly important. In recent years this has become controversial and politicised, especially with proposals to reform the Gender Recognition Act 2004.
Despite gender reassignment discrimination having been unlawful in the UK since 1999, gender remains a poorly understood issue when it comes to the day-to-day lives of employees. As the rarest of the nine protected characteristics, many managers will not have supported a transgender member of staff in their organization.
In this webinar we discussed the current state of play for gender reassignment in the workplace and spoke with those at the cutting edge of battles over trans rights.
Hosted by specialist employment lawyer Ellie Gilbert, we spoke with joint authors of recently published “A Practical Guide to Transgender Law” Robin Moira White and Nicola Newbegin of Old Square Chambers, alongside CEO and founder of Otter Intelligence, Gabe Barrett.
The webinar began with an introduction from our panelists, moving on to an overview of the current state of play regards gender identity in the workplace. From here we learned what good practice looks like, and moved on to tackle the dos and don’ts of supporting an employee through transition. Following this, our speakers opened to a Q&A, answering the following questions:
– Do the data protections only accrue when a UK GRC is obtained? Do overseas equivalents have equal effect? 44.37
– When are some of the pitfalls an employer can make when supporting a trans person at work? 49.30
– Is being overly positive, or putting too much focus on gender, also not advisable? 53.07
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PLEASE NOTE – The above webinar took place on Tuesday 2nd November at 10:00am GMT. Updates may have been introduced after this webinar was recorded.
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