This year's Equality Act sees a big change in employment law. Previously, employers have been able to wriggle out of so-called 'dual discrimination' claims, but not anymore.
A certain newsreader who tried to claim discrimination and failed will be listening carefully to see how this piece of legislation unfolds when it is tested in court. Her claim failed because she said she was being discrimated against on the grounds of age and sex. But, lo, there are other female newsreaders aren't there? And, there are other older newsreaders too! Nevermind that the female newsreaders are all under 40 and the older ones are all male.
Well, this new law changes all that. You can now claim on the grounds of two protected characteristics, so she could have argued that she was treated unfairly because she was an older woman. Same goes for Pakistani Muslims, black men, young women, or any other combination of two characteristics. The claimant would have to show that they wouldn't have been discriminated against but for the fact that they had two protected characteristics and the burden of proof would be on the employer to prove that they weren't in the wrong.
No comments:
Post a Comment