Employment (Business)

Discrimination

As an employer, you owe your employees the right to be employed, paid, trained and promoted only because of their skills, abilities and how they do their job. If you treat one employee less favourably than another because of their gender, marital status, race, belief, disability, religion, age, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity or sexual orientation you could be disciminating against them. 

You don't even have to be consciously aware that you are discriminating against an employee. If you treat someone less favourably because they associate with someone with a 'protected characteristic' or your policies and procedures unfairly disadvantage someone with a protected characteristic, this may also be discriminatory.

When 'discrimination' is heard in relation to the work place, most people are really thinking about harrassment and victimisation rather than an employee being unfairly disadvantaged. Harrassment is more deliberate conduct by an employer which violates dignity or makes the employee feel intimidated, humiliated or offended. Victimisation occurs where an employee is unfairly treated following an attempt to make a complaint about discrimination.

As an employer, not only do you have to be careful about what you say and do in relation to your staff, but you need to ensure that your policies and procedures do not discriminate against any of them. If you need a review of your documentation to ensure it is compliant or one of your employees has raised a concern about discrimination, contact our Employment Team for advice today.