Chapter 16Employing labourThe areas of discrimination covered by UK discrim-
ination law are set out below:
■Sex discrimination and marital discrimination, which
is discrimination mostly against women, though men
are covered by the law, and discrimination against a
person because the person is married.
■Race discrimination, which is discrimination on the
grounds of race, colour, nationality or ethnic or national
origins.
■Sexual orientation, which is discrimination on the
grounds that a person is gay, heterosexual or bisexual.
■Religion or belief, which is discrimination on grounds
involving religion, religious belief or similar philo-
sophical belief. Atheism may fall within the defini-
tion but political beliefs will not. In deciding whether
discrimination law should be applied, tribunals will
most likely look at factors such as collective worship,
a clear belief system and/or a profound belief affect-
ing a person’s way of life or view of the world.
■Transsexuality, being discrimination against persons
who have gender dysphoria and wish to live and work
in their adopted sex.
■Disability, being discrimination against a person on
the grounds of his or her disability.
■Age discrimination, which is discrimination on the
ground of being too old or too young for a particular
appointment and, in the case of age, too old to go on
working.
Although we consider here discrimination in employ-
ment, these discrimination laws apply also to engagement
in a partnershipbusiness or profession.
In recruitment and selection of
employees
Offers of employment
It is unlawful for a person in relation to an employment
by him at a place in England, Wales or Scotland and
on British ships, aircraft and hovercraft to discriminate
against men or women on the above stated grounds:
■in the arrangements made for the purpose of deciding
who should be offered the job; or
■in the terms on which the job is offered; or
■by refusing or deliberately omitting to offer the job.
‘Arrangements’ is a wide expression covering a range
of recruitment techniques, e.g. asking an employment
agency to send only white applicants, or male applicants.
Discrimination by employment agencies themselves is
also covered.
As regards the terms of the contract of employment,
it is unlawful to discriminate against an employee on the
grounds listed above in terms of the employment which
is given to him or the terms of access to opportunities
for promotion, transfer or training, or to any other benefit,
facilities, or services, or subjecting him to any other detri-
ment. Thus, it is unlawful to discriminate in regard to
matters such as privileged loans, and mortgages by banks
and building societies, and discounts on holidays given
to employees of travel firms.
A person who takes on workers supplied by a third
party, rather than employing them himself or herself, is
obliged by the Acts not to discriminate in the treatment
of them or in the work they are allowed to do. This means
that temporary staff supplied by an agency are covered
by the anti-discrimination provisions.Exceptions
There are some circumstances in which it is lawful to
discriminate and these will now be considered.
1 Genuine occupational qualification or requirement.
So far as sex discrimination is concerned, an employer
may confine a job to a man where male sex is a ‘genuine
occupational qualification’ (GOQ) for a particular job.
This could arise, for example, for reasons of physiology
as in modelling male clothes, or authenticity in enter-
tainment, as where a part calls for an actor and not an
actress. Sometimes a man will be required for reasons of
decency or privacy, such as an attendant in a men’s lavat-
ory. Sometimes, too, where the job involves work out-
side the United Kingdom in a country whose laws and
customs would make it difficult for a woman to carry out
the job, being a male may be a GOQ. As regards marital
status, it may be reasonable to discriminate in favour of
a man or a woman where the job is one of two held by a
married couple, as where a woman is a housekeeper liv-
ing in with her husband who is employed as a gardener.
There are, of course, some situations where female sex
would be a GOQ for a certain type of job, as the follow-
ing case illustrates.519
Sisleyv Britannia Security Systems(1983)The defendants employed women to work in a security
control station. The claimant, a man, applied for a vacant
job but was refused employment. It appeared that the