Equality and Discrimination are covered under the Employment Equality Acts 1998-2015 and Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act, 2005 within Irish legislation. The Act prohibits any scope of inequality or discrimination under the following 9 grounds:
- Age
- Civil Status
- Disability
- Family Status
- Gender
- Membership of the Travelling Community
- Race
- Religious Belief
- Sexual Orientation
Employers should ensure that employees are aware that discrimination/inequality will not be tolerated in the workplace as it has a negative effect for both employees involved and the employer. Examples of negative effects include:
- Employees feeling degraded or humiliated
- Low morale and productivity
- Increased absenteeism and potential work-related stress illnesses
- High turnover of staff
Discrimination and liability
If discrimination occurs in the workplace, the employer is vicariously liable. Therefore, it is essential to have a bullying and harassment policy in place. The employer also has an obligation to ensure employees fully understand the policy, training sessions on dignity and respect in work should be carried out.
Where a member of staff is subject to discrimination in the workplace for one of the 9 grounds and the employer fails to implement practices and procedures to resolve the issue, the employee may take a claim under the employment equality act, and if successful may be awarded up to four years’ salary as compensation.
Discrimination can be either direct or indirect (unintentional). Below is an example of a case taken to the European Court of Human Rights on appeal, alleging discrimination in the workplace.
Eweida v British Airways (ECHR)
The claimant Nadia Eweida alleged discrimination on the grounds of religion as her employers made her stop wearing her white gold cross necklace visibly.
The employers reasoning was that it was against the ‘corporate image’. Ms. Eweida claimed that her rights had been violated under Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights. She cited that her employer was discriminating against Christians. Ms. Eweida appealed to the European Court of Human Rights in which they ruled that the employers had not reached a fair balance between Eweida’s religious beliefs and the company’s desire to have a particular corporate image.
The ECHR considered that there was no evidence of other authorised items of religious clothing such as turbans or hijabs having any effect on the company’s corporate image, hence Ms. Eweida’s visible cross necklace was discreet and did not take away from the image of the company.
The ECHR awarded Ms. Eweida of €32,000 in damages.
Overall, the employee must present a prima facie case to show a link between being unfavourably treated in the workplace due to one of the nine grounds of discrimination.
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