This may not be a joke, but somewhere deep in the bowls of hell, Hitler, Mao and Stalin are sharing a good laugh in Satan's Grand Ballroom as they toast Labour's Equality Act (written in an adjoining conference room) with vintage fire water.

The UK Daily Mail reports that.

Ministers yesterday announced that the vast bulk of Labour's controversial Equality Act would be implemented immediately, despite concerns about its impact on business and office life.

The legislation, championed by Labour's deputy leader Harriet Harman, introduces a bewildering range of rights which allow staff to sue for almost any perceived offence they receive in the office.

It creates the controversial legal concept of ‘third party harassment,' under which workers will be able to sue over jokes and banter they find offensive-even if the comments are aimed at someone else and they weren't there at the time the comments were made.

This leftist attack on freedom and individuality creates a legal framework whereby anyone can sue their employer for anything which they perceive to be offensive. To make matters worse, there is no safeguard for the accused in the form of a warning system. The ‘victim' is not required to tell the person involved that their comments are offensive and there is no provision for a written warning either, instead this is a one and done measure. What this means is that an employee can overhear a joke which was not directed at them, perceive it to be offensive and then sue without any attempt at corrective action.

This is sure to create a morale strangling, job killing business environment where dissatisfied employees can exact their revenge on their co-workers and their employer for perceived wrongs. Now consider that the ‘Equality Act' will also apply to vendors and customers. How could any business operate under these Hitleresque new laws?

Let's say a customer goes into an automobile dealership to look for a new car, they find a model that is almost exactly what they are looking for except for the color so they tell the sales person they just don't like black, can they get the same car in white. An employee overhears the conversation, takes offense because they perceive this to be a racial slur and the law suit merry go round begins. An extreme example? But is it possible?

Other provisions include.

Under the legislation, employers will be barred from asking about the health of job applicants, leading to fears they could be landed with staff with appalling sickness records.

Workers can cite ‘discrimination by association' if they feel they have lost out because of an employer's prejudice against a relative, such as a gay brother.

Employment tribunals have also been given powers in the workplace, such as requiring managers to undergo diversity or equality training.

Companies will no longer be allowed to maintain policies which prohibit employees from discussing compensation, which the law's proponents claim will end ‘pay discrimination.' This of course will kill productivity as there will be no incentive for any worker to exceed the minimum requirements of their position. For example: If Sarah and Barry each have the same job title and have been working for their company for the same number of years, but Sarah does three times more work with only a fraction of the mistakes, she should be entitled to earn much more than Barry. If Barry has an issue with Sarah's compensation because he perceives it to be unfair, he can sue. Soon everybody will get fair pay and productivity will level off at the lowest acceptable level, everybody loses.

Why would anyone in their right mind invest their hard work and resources to build a business and create jobs with such insane anti-business laws on the books? The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said that the new laws are just a part of a series of employment law reforms which will lay £ 11.3 billion in additional costs on the already overburdened business community. The BCC added.

Abigail Morris, policy advisor at the British Chambers of Commerce, said the Government's own impact assessment showed it would cost business £ 190 million just to get to grips with the new laws.

She said the full cost could be greater is employers face a fresh wave of trivial discrimination and harassment claims.

She added: ‘Businesses are really concerned about this. Even the Government admits it imposes an absolutely huge cost on business.'

Think it can't happen here? One month from today on November 2nd vote like our entire way of life hangs in the balance, because it really does.


paboehmke@yahoo.com