How to Prevent Discrimination in the Workplace
Workplace discrimination is based on certain prejudices and occurs when an employee is treated unfavourably because of gender, sexuality, race, religion, pregnancy, or disability. Discrimination generally falls into two principal categories, known as direct and indirect discrimination.
Direct Discrimination
Direct discrimination occurs when one individual receives less favourable treatment than another based on one or more of the nine grounds set out in the employment equality legislation. If a woman is paid less than a man to do the same job for no reason other than being a woman, this would represent direct discrimination.
Indirect Discrimination
Indirect discrimination occurs when neutral requirements unjustly disadvantage a certain category of persons. An example of this may be requiring candidates for a manual labour position to have fluent English. This would put Irish nationals in a better position to secure the position over foreign nationals.
Discrimination by Association
Discrimination by association occurs when a person is treated less favourably based on their association with a person protected by one of the nine grounds. If someone is experiencing harassment at work because they are in a relationship outside work with a foreign national this would represent discrimination by association.
Discrimination by Imputation
If an employee is incorrectly identified as belonging to one of the categories of a person described under the nine grounds and receives less favourable treatment than colleagues this will amount to discrimination by imputation. If it is incorrectly assumed that an employee has a certain religious belief and that employee is treated less favourably on this basis this will be discrimination by imputation.
It's important to know that discrimination is carried out by individuals. Your organisation is liable for any actions carried out by an employee in the course of their employment. It is important to take action to reduce the possibility that any discriminatory action occurs.
As part of the action plan to reduce the risk of discrimination occurring within your organisation, you should ensure that all employees:
- Understand that the organisation is committed to preventing all forms of discrimination
- Are aware of and understand their roles and responsibilities with respect to promoting equality and diversity
- Know how to seek advice and make a complaint in respect of discrimination
- Are confident that the employer will treat any complaint seriously and that it will be dealt with promptly and fairly
- Understand that any incident of discrimination will be viewed as a serious disciplinary matter
- Understand the types of behaviour that will be regarded as discrimination.
Providing Training
You should ensure that all managers and supervisors undertake training in ensuring that the workplace remains discrimination-free. Equality training should not be confined to management-level employees. Training, information and skills development in relation to equality should be provided to staff at all levels throughout the organisation. All such training should be structured so that it is accessible to all employees.
- You can communicate on equality issues through:
- Induction training
- Tailored in-house awareness training programmes
- Employee briefings
- Staff representatives
- Information on staff notice boards
- In-house magazine articles
- The staff handbook and policy manual
- Line manager and employee guides
It is important that there is action taken to ensure that discrimination is not in the workplace.
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