Discrimination and Harassment

There is no upper limit on the amount of compensation which can be awarded to employees who are victims of discrimination or harassment.

Discrimination arises in four basic forms:

• Direct Discrimination- treating a person less favourably than a person not having a particular characteristic;
• Indirect Discrimination – this occurs where the effect of certain requirements, conditions or practices imposed by a employer can have an adverse impact disproportionally on one group or another, e.g. the criteria for a job cannot be justified as other people without the criteria could do the job just as well;
• Victimisation – when someone is treated less favourably because they have taken certain steps relating to discrimination legislation;
• Harassment – for a reason relating to a person’s race/ sex/ disability/ religion/ sexual orientation, they suffer unwanted treatment which violates their dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading environment for them.

If you believe you are the victim of discrimination or harassment or if you are facing a claim as an employer, please contact our Employment Law team for advice and guidance.

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