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Email 3: Principles of Equality Act 2010 on Discrimination
Under the Equality Act 2010, discrimination in recruitment and selection is strictly regulated to ensure fairness and equality. Discrimination has the following principles as outlined by ACAS (2023a):
Direct Discrimination: Giving a different level of treatment to a person based on a certain category they belong to (gender, age, race, etc.). For example, denying a possible employee a job merely on the basis of her gender is strictly prohibited except where the candidate can be demonstratively shown not to meet the specific requirement of the occupation.
Indirect Discrimination: Serving a provision, criterion, or practice that disadvantages people with a particular protected characteristic and is not for a reasonable and demonstrable purpose. For instance, the employer may set down rules whereby all the employees must work late shifts and those rules may be prejudicial to women employees who havefamily care-giving responsibilities other than where such rules can be objectively justified.
Harassment: Behaviors that are associated with an unlawful objectionable characteristic and leave the individual offended or humiliated, or where the surroundings are hostile, intromission, demeaning, or intimidating.
Victimisation: Failing to promote or assign fair responsibilities or requirements to an employee because they filed a complaint about discrimination or supported another person who did so.
Occupational Requirements (ORs):
Based on the Equality Act 2010, it may be lawful to say that sexes are capable of doing specific jobs, as indicated by FPFW (2023). There should also be reasonable, relevant and necessary conditions as pertains to the job description.
For example:
- Permitted: For instance, in a women’s shelter, it may be legal to insist that only female employees have to deal with other women who are in a vulnerable state for purposes of respecting their privacy and worth.
- Not Permitted: Hiring a male manager in an administrative position and stating that a male is preferred over a female would be considered unlawful discrimination (FPFW, 2023).
Conditions for ORs:
- The requirement must be essential to the job, not just desirable.
- Employers must demonstrate that no alternative arrangement could address the need.
- The decision must be regularly reviewed to ensure continued justification.
Potential Developments:….
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