Penn Legal - Discrimination

Discrimination

Discrimination may occur on the grounds of:

Sex including discrimination on the grounds of pregnancy and marital status.

Race.

Disability.

Religion or belief.

Sexual Orientation.

Age.

Additionally, harassment by reason of any of these grounds may be discriminatory.

Legislation to protect workers from discrimination on the grounds of age is scheduled to come into force in October 2006.

There are two basic forms of discrimination; direct and indirect.

Direct discrimination is when an employee or prospective employee is less favourably treated because of his/her race, sex, sexual orientation, disability or religious belief.

For example, a female candidate with better qualifications and experience than a successful male candidate is not offered the job or a black male is not offered an interview while a white male with identical skills and qualifications is invited to interview.

Indirect discrimination is where a condition or practice is applied but it adversely affects a considerably larger proportion of the population than the other and the application of that condition or practice cannot be justified. For example a requirement to work full-time might indirectly discriminate against females as they tend to have responsibility for child care and may be unable to undertake full time hours around child care responsibilities.

Employers should ensure they afford the same opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment. Employers should if at all possible put in place an equal opportunities policy and ensure they and their employees apply that policy at all times.

Penn Legal is able to advise you on your obligations under the various discrimination Acts and can draft appropriate policies to suit your business needs.