Age discrimination act 2006
Since October 2006, it has been unlawful for employers and others to discriminate against a person on the basis of his/her age. The original 2006 Regulations have now been incorporated into the Equality Act 2010. Also, from 1 October 2011 there is no longer a default retirement age when employers can force people to retire just because they have reached 65.
Age discrimination legislation therefore applies effectively to everyone who is applying for work and who is in work. Employers, Vocational Training Providers, Employment Agencies, and Occupational Pension Scheme Trustees/Managers etc. are all bound by the law and cannot discriminate against any individual because of their age; neither can they force anyone to leave employment just because of their age.
There is also the concept of secondary liability. This means that if, for example, an employment agency accepts discriminatory instructions from an employer and carries them out, both parties are liable. An employer might be liable for the discriminatory activities of an employee and employers may also be liable if they fail to protect their employees from discriminatory acts by third parties in the workplace. For example, in a racial discrimination case a hotel group was held to have discriminated against two black waitresses for failing to prevent them being exposed to racist abuse by a comedian and some members of the audience.
Can I have an outline of what the age discrimination act is and what it does here
Age is one of the most common things that people discriminate about. They will prejudge people. For example, elderly people look at teenagers and cross the road as they think they will hurt them. I think this is wrong as they are discriminating against that age group but is people that have judge them and preached about it.
Direct discrimination: this is where persons on terms of their age get treated differently to others, for example, an employer may treat man/women differently because of their age.
Elderly people can be prejudged and disrespected by people.
For example: when I went to a nursing home there was a lady called Mable she was 53. The staff treated her different than the rest of the residents as she was the youngest resident. There were always buying Mable sweets and magazines and not this for the other residents. They all show her that she was there favourite resident. If Mable went for a job in Asda and they said that they couldn’t take her because she was too old. It would be age discrimination as she is over 50years old. This is an example of direct discrimination.
Indirect discrimination, harassment and direct discrimination has been stopped by the age discrimination act and by this they have made it illegal but this doesn’t say that it will not happen because it still could happen.
If someone is trying to get a job as a manager at a big company they may be prejudged due to their age.
For example if a 18 year old girl tried to get this job they may not want her as she may not have enough experience to full a big company. This will not be fair on the young girl as she can be trained to learn this this is an example of indirect discrimination of age. To overcome this they could train her up until she is qualified enough to do this job or say to her can you start from the middle and work your way up. If she had the right qualifications then she will be able to do it from a lower position in the company. This is an example of indirect discrimination.
Harassment: This could be where one or more people of an age group has effected someone’s dignity, leaving them humiliated or even intimidating them. This could vary depending on what they are doing such as calling them names, being violence towards them, pushing them or tripping them over, ganging up on them and bullying them, ignoring them, unnecessary jokes can be very hurtful and personal remarks such as your ugly or you smell.
If someone is being harassed because of their age it will be discrimination.
For example: if someone is being harassed by their boss or another colleague then the age discrimination act could come in play as this wouldn’t be fair to them. If they are being picked on as they are younger and have less experience the manager should put this right. This is an example of harassment.
The age discrimination act has been put into place because they are trying to prevent discrimination, harassment and indirect discrimination by making it illegal to discriminate against people because of their age.
Sex discrimination act 1975
The Act covers all forms of discrimination in the workplace, including selection for a job, training, promotion, work practices, dismissal or any other disadvantage such as sexual harassment because of sex.
Who is protected?
It covers all employment and applies to apprentices, those working under a contract of employment and the self-employed working under a contract personally to do the work. Ex-employees can also make a claim against a former employer, if they are complaining about something that was closely connected to their employment.
What is positive action?
The Act allows employers to treat someone with a protected characteristic more favourably during the process of recruitment and promotion.
If they "reasonably" think the person with a protected characteristic was disadvantaged because of that characteristic (or there are fewer people with a particular protected characteristic employed), they can choose that person over someone who does not have the characteristic provided that:
• The person is “as qualified” as the other candidate.
• The employer does not have a recruitment or promotion policy of treating people of the underrepresented group more favourably.
• The more favourable treatment is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim (the legitimate aim being encouraging participation and overcoming disadvantage).
These provisions are voluntary. An employee cannot bring a claim because the employer did not apply positive action during the recruitment or promotion process, although they may still be able to bring a claim if they were discriminated against during it.
Can I have an outline of what the act is and what it does here?
This law has is used for both sexes e.g. Men and women. But women use the act more so than men. This law can be used in a workplace. For example in a primary school the act will cover, being fairly selected for employment and not because of gender. The acts responsibility will cover the boss, the teachers and the students. In a primary school. If there is discrimination within a school is covered but could also be expanded to other settings such as a pub or restraint and many others.
The sex discrimination act is therefor used to stop discrimination. For example Sarah went for a job interview at a garage she is fully qualified. It would be illegal if the boss turned round and said sorry we cannot interview you as you’re women and we only take on men. It may also go to court if Sarah decided to prosecute. Another example may be mark is in college doing his NVQ 3 and wants to be a midwife the lecture for the course in the university may refuse to teach him because he is male. Both of these examples are illegal and should be prosecuted if they were done.
These are different types of sex discrimination:
Direct discrimination: this can occur when a James a male employer treats a pregnant employee Sophie differently to a male employee Mark just because of their sex; this is classed as being direct discrimination. If Mark and Sarah both went for a job interview. When James was interviewing Mark he was asking him about his experience and does he have any medical issues that may need prioritising more than some of the other employees because it may be an issue and he may only be able to work part time if he has medical issues. Sarah went into the interview room and James was asking her about how much leave she would need and how many days until her due date. Sarah got the job because he didn’t think mark was fit enough to do the job and would have 3 days of a week. He didn’t take into consideration that Sarah will have more time off because of the baby. This can be seen as direct discrimination.
Indirect sex discrimination is where one certain person of a certain gender is disadvantage considerably more. For example, if there was a play going on in a secondary school and a gay man wanted to play as a lady because he is more feminine, but the director of the school play doesn’t want him to play a female because he is gay and the director doesn’t think it is right that a gay man was to dress up as women in a play so therefore he asked the teacher to go and tell the male that the place had been taken even though it hadn’t. Clearly the director wasn’t comfortable with this man’s sexuality and felt it inappropriate for him to play the role so I believe that would be classed as discriminating against him because of his sexuality.
Because the sex discrimination act has been put in place there are there things that can be seen as unlawful harassment.
- This is where an individual may be exposed to unwanted behaviour because of their sex. This may effect there personal opinion of themselves which can lead to depression or low self-esteem. This could also make them feel awkward or humiliating also it can make them feel low when in a place of work for example this may be how the gay man felt when he wanted a female role in the school play.
- This may be where someone is involved in unwanted contact whether it may be verbal or non-verbal contact and in some cases physical contact. This may effect there personal views on themselves and could also make the environment they are in uncomfortable and disturbing. For example the director in the play was discriminating against the gay man by telling him that it would be inappropriate for him to play the role.
- This could be where a female student is being treated less favourable than the other students because she refused conduct that was unwanted and not needed. This conduct known as harassment when all sides of the allegation have been addressed. Another example may be if two was to go to court for totally different things, such as, one had committed burglary and another attack someone, then the court would have to give them both a fair trial and treated them the same no matter the offence they committed because everyone has the same rights and they have to all be treated the same with the same respect.
Harassment
Harassment takes many forms, from relatively mild sexual banter to actual physical violence. Employees may not always realise that their behaviour constitutes harassment, but they must recognise that what is acceptable to one person may not be acceptable to another. Harassment is unwanted behaviour of a sexual, racial or discriminatory nature by an employee towards another employee or service user.
Examples of harassment include…
- Words or actions likely to cause distress or offence to colleagues, service users or visitors.
- Insensitive jokes and pranks.
- Offensive comments about appearance, ethnic or religious background, or abilities.
- Unnecessary body contact.
- Displays of offensive material.
- Speculation about a person’s private life and sexual activities.
- Requests for sexual favours.
- Threat of dismissal, loss of promotion for refusal of sexual favours.
- Threatened or actual violence.
- Deliberate exclusion from conversation.
by
szulikowski (student)
