Workplace or Employment Discrimination

Discrimination in the workplace is very common. More common than it is supposed to be. People could be discriminated against for different reasons such as race, religion, sex, disability, age, physical features, nationality, colour and race. In the UK there are many laws and rules to prevent workplace discrimination such as Race Relations Act 1976, Sex Discrimination Act 1975, Equal pay Act 1970, The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006, equality Act 2006, Human Rights Act 1998, Disability Discrimination Act 1995, Employment Rights Act 1996, Mental Capacity Act 2005 etc...  Creation of so many laws has a two dimensional interpretation:  the first one is that there are so many discriminations and the second is that the parliament and the government care about people and try to work hard to prevent discrimination , as far as they could go.

The problem does not lay in the discrimination itself and the laws and acts to regulate it, but it is in the nature of the issue as a hidden crime or offence which is prevented by law and should be stopped. Discrimination at the work place or more concretely discrimination at employment is one of those crimes which locate at the heart of the dark side of crime. It is difficult to locate the offence and whether an employer breaks the law or not. Due to this difficulty, unfortunately most of the acts and laws remain as printed papers rather than ACTS to prevent offences and law breaking by punishing offenders and law breakers.

When you apply for a job and fill in an application form there is much information that you have to give your expected employer, such as age, sex, disability, and now sexual orientation as being gay, lesbian or straight, ethnic origin, nationality and religion. This entire information request is not illegal, or for most of it is to consider your special needs or to give everybody equal opportunities. However, when it comes to short listing and interview you cannot prove whether you have not been shortlisted because you are not suitable for the post or you have been simply and concisely not the one the employer prefers for reasons not accepted by law. You may guess this or predict it as a lawyer in Manchester said: I have been discriminated against because of my short built, as firms like lawyers to be well built and marketable. That lawyer said that she has been invited for the interview and answered all the questions but she was not selected.

Nobody, except the interviewers, could judge whether that woman was discriminated against because she was short or she was not suitable for the post and there were better candidates. However, that woman is not alone, many people are not invited for interviews and some others are disappointed after the interview for different reasons; including different kinds of discrimination. The common theme is that none of them can bring an employer to court under any legislation for discrimination at employment. You cannot ask an employer why you are not shortlisted or not selected after the interview. The only possibility is that the employer tells the candidate straight away that she/he is not suitable for the post because of her/his age, race, religion, sex, sexuality, disability, and physical features or so on. This is a very far or rare possibility close to impossible. Another possibility is that somebody within the organization reports the offence or one of the interviewers leak the information as sympathy for the candidate, for the sake of applying the law or as a personal attitude.

In general, discrimination in the employment market is an offence as it is prevented by so many laws and acts of parliament, but contrary to many other offences the victim cannot bring the offender to court and even if she/he did, cannot prove any offence.  In this case the offence goes underground and there is a very rare possibility for its detection. If you suspect that you have been discriminated against because of any reason mentioned in the Acts mentioned above, please tell us how you can prove it and whether you are ready to bring your case to court or not?