15 years ago no one could even spell the word Discrimination, let alone levy it on a daily basis against their employer. However, Discrimination is now a very fashionable word and the dilemma for employers is how to sort out the nonsense claims from the serious and genuine claims. Discrimination in a nutshell is the treatment of one person or one particular group of people less favourably than others because of their race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, disability or age.
The law in the UK mainly focuses on two kinds of discrimination: direct and indirect. Direct discrimination occurs when an employee or prospective employee is treated less favourably because of their colour, race sex etc. Indirect discrimination occurs for example, when there are rules, regulations or procedures operating, which have the effect of putting members from one of the protected groups at a disadvantage.
And the headache for all of us is that Discrimination is often a matter of perception rather than reality. For example, "sexy lady" might be a compliment to one person, but an outrageous insult to another, or "Taffy" might be perceived as a nickname by one, but seen as discriminatory by someone else and so on. The world is a complex place and managers need all the support they can get when dealing with these complex issues.
|
