Discrimination is an atrocious act that should not be entertained anywhere more so, at workstations. As a matter of fact, employees are protected against discrimination under Employment Equality Acts that outlaw workplace discriminations in regards to promotions, training, pay, work experience and access to employment.

Victimization and harassment at workplaces are also classified as discrimination. These acts apply to part time, temporary, full time, partners, self-employed contractors, and local and state authority office holders. If you fall in any of the mentioned workforce categories, you have the right to hire employment law solicitors Dublin.

Employment discrimination grounds:

The nine prohibited grounds that cannot be considered when making decisions regarding a person’s employment status are; gender, family status, civil status, religious belief, sexual orientation, age, disability, being a member of the travelers’ community, and nationality, ethnicity, race, color and national origin. The employment equality acts go ahead to prohibit; direct discrimination, indirect discrimination, failure to offer equal pay due to discriminatory beliefs, sexual harassment and victimization under protected grounds.

Based on the employment equality acts, a person who feels discriminated against has the right to request their employer for information or clarification on the issue using a request for information form EE.2. For instance, if a person feels discriminated for not being promoted over the years yet other people get promoted annually, they have the right to request an explanation from their employer. Based on the information an employee gathers, they are advised by their employment law solicitors Dublin on whether it is necessary to refer the issue to the equality tribunal.

The equality tribunal is a quasi-judicial forum whose functions and duties were transferred to the workplace relations commission as of 1st October 2015. The workplace relations commission is mandated to listen to and make decisions on employment discrimination complaints.

How workplace relations commission solves complaints:

You are required to file your workplace discrimination cases within six months after the discrimination occurs via their online portal. However, if you have a good reason for the delay, the time limit can be extended further by another six months. You must notify the organization or person you are filing a complaint against within two months after the discrimination act happened through filling form ES.1 and sending it to them. The notification time limit can be extended to four months on reasonable grounds, if the addressed party does not make any response within one month and if you are not satisfied with the response they make.

Mediation

The commission will first recommend and offer confidential and voluntary mediation. If mediation attempts succeed, both you and the organization must sign a legally binding agreement to ensure that you abide by the decision terms. Since mediation is confidential, its outcome is never published. If mediation fails, the case is referred to an adjudication office for further investigation.

Adjudication

An adjudicating officer conducts an inquiry to the complaint, investigates and issues a legally binding decision. Their decision may include; compensation to the discriminated party, an order for an employer to offer equal treatment to all employees or an order that the authority takes specific actions.