Discrimination at Workplace - Essay Example

Discrimination of the of the Introduction Discrimination is the process of treating or proposing to treat someone unfairly just because he has some particular characteristics that is not common to all others in the community or others at a workplace. Workplace diversity may occur on several grounds including age, sex, marital status, physical disability, etc. The discrimination at the workplace may either be direct or indirect. However in whatever form the discrimination occurs it creates a potential disadvantage for the organization. Discrimination in whatever form is disadvantageous for the people in an organization as it affects the team work in an organization. Another problem is that the people with different abilities and different orientation actually bring with them different abilities and by discrimination the organization actually loses the valuable contribution that these different groups may offer. Discussion Discrimination is the act treating someone less fairly or rather differently than others. Discrimination is not always lawful and there is a very fine line that differentiates between what is fair and what is unfair in differentiating a worker from others. Discrimination is not always unlawful because people are treated differently depending on their skill and ability. However, there are certain provisions against which employer can’t discriminate its employees. There are mainly two forms of discrimination that is practiced by employees. The two forms of decimation are namely direct discrimination and indirect decimation. Direct discrimination Direct discrimination is the process by which employers directly deny pay hike or equal pay or employment opportunities to employees on the basis of certain characteristics that they have which differentiates them from other employees (Human rights opportunity and human rights commission, 2010). Example of this type of discrimination is not giving the female workers equal pay as their male counterparts or denying employment to old age people or training opportunities to certain communities of people. Indirect discrimination Indirect discrimination is another type of discrimination in which the employer imposes unfair condition on the employee that disadvantages them in their work. The indirect discrimination particularly disadvantages people who have certain characteristics that are protected by law. The Indirect direct discrimination particularly affects those employees who are affected by a provision in the employment that is kept in order to treat all employees equally. For example a provision in the employment may require that all employees have to work for 12 hours a day in order to impose fair treatment at workplace. However this provision may affect some employees who have caring responsibilities. Similarly a physically demanding job may be the source of indirect discrimination against physically challenged employees. Actually there is a very fine line between what constitutes as fair treatment at workplace and what constitutes discrimination at workplace. For example ensuring fair treatment at workplace may require that all the employees have to work for a fixed no. of hours at the work. However this may be the source of discrimination against pregnant woman employees and the employees who have family care responsibilities. There are specific laws that have been enacted against certain form of discrimination which have been declared unlawful by the governments of different countries. There are laws against discrimination on the basis of 1. Gender 2. Marital status 3. Sexual orientation 4. Gender 5. Pregnancy and maternity leave 6. Disability 7. Race 8. Color 9. Ethnicity 10. National origin Sex discrimination Sex discrimination refers to the broad area of discrimination an employee based on their sex or on the basis of gender reassignment (i.e. going under the knife to change one’s gender) or marital status. Any act of discrimination is declared unlawful under the law of equal pay act (Gregory, 2003). Under the equal pay act it is unlawful to discriminate against the workforce just because of their gender in matters of recruitment, pay package, other benefits offered etc (Nidirect, 2014). Under the sex discrimination order 1976, it is unlawful to discriminate against an employee on the basis of Sex Marital status Gender reassignment Racial discrimination Racial discrimination occurs on the basis of color, ethnicity, race, nationality or national origin (US equal employment opportunity commission, 2014). Racial relations acts makes discrimination on any of the above mentioned factors as unlawful. The law on this matter makes it unlawful for any discrimination on the grounds of Recruitment and selection- The candidates who are considered for recruitment or training or selection should not be discriminated on the basis of racial discrimination. The employment should be offered on the basis of discrimination on ratio matters or deliberately choosing to omit offering employment to a person on the racial ground should not be the criteria. The racial ground should not be the guiding factor when deciding on choosing terms and condition for employment. While giving benefits to the employees racial consideration should not be considered. This may include denial of maternity leave to an employee that has been granted to another employee just because one belongs from a different race. This may also include provision of promotion, transfer training or other benefits that are offered to a class of employee or the act of denying it to certain class of employee. Example may involve transferring employees to remote locations or inhospitable locations just because they belong to different race. The termination of the employment term of an employee on racial grounds or causing harm to the employee after his employment term has ended. Discrimination on the grounds of disability The employees should not be discriminated against on the grounds of disability and there are provisions in the law which makes this act by the employers unlawful. The employees with disabilities have the right to be treated on equal terms with other employees who do not suffer from that particular disability. Not only that, but it the duty of the employer to ensure that the people with disabilities get a level playing field with the employees who do not suffer from that disability. The applies that the employer should be aware of the particular disability from which the particular person suffers and should be aware of the fact that this particular disability would put him or her in sufficient disadvantage compared to others who do not have the particular disability. Discrimination on the basis of religion The employer has no right to discriminate against an employee on the basis of religion. The employee has the freedom to practice his religion provided it does not affect the workplace safety or any other reasonable consideration. The employer should not practice direct or indirect discrimination against the employee. Direct discrimination against the employees on the ground of religion may include refusing them employment on religious grounds or refusing to provide them an equal pay etc. Indirect discrimination against employees on the basis of religion may include provision in the employability norms of not allowing the employees to cover their heads thus indirectly indiscriminating against Muslims and Sikhs. Conclusion After discussion about the discrimination in workplace in the above pages, it can arrive at the conclusion that though it is not wanted discrimination still occurs in various forms at workplace. The discrimination occurs mainly in two forms direct and indirect. Direct discrimination occurs when the employees are directly denied some benefits due to certain particular reasons that are related to the particular characteristics that the employers have. Indirect discrimination on the other hand focuses on creating employability condition that causes disadvantages to certain special class of employees. Discrimination in whatever form it occurs should however be avoided as it disrupts the flow of work, and unity at workplace. However there is a thin line that is used to judge what is considered as fair and what is considered as discriminatory at workplace and often depends on particular situation. References Gregory, R. F. (2003). Women and Workplace Discrimination: Overcoming Barriers to Gender Equality. NJ: Rutgers University Press Human rights opportunity and human rights commission. (2010). Discrimination – Workplace. Retrieved from http://www.humanrightscommission.vic.gov.au/index.php/workplace-discrimination Nidirect. (2014). Discrimination at work. Retrieved from http://www.nidirect.gov.uk/discrimination-at-work. US equal employment opportunity commission. (2014). Discrimination by types. Retrieved from http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/types/. Read More