Equality, Diversity and Inclusion 1; key prinicples and legislation

Question 1

What does the Equality Act 2010 do?

Answer 1

Brought together over 100 prior separate
anti-discrimination pieces of legislation and
expanded the provisions

Question 2

Where does the Equality Act 2010 apply?

Answer 2

• workplace,
• education,
• public services,
• property transactions,
  -consumers,
• members/ guests of clubs associations

Question 3

What are the 9 protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010?

Answer 3

*age
*gender reassignment
*being married or in a civil
partnership
*being pregnant or on maternity
leave
*disability
*race including colour, nationality,
ethnic or national origin
*religion or belief
*sex
*sexual orientation

Question 4

what is discrimination according to the Equality Act 2010 definition

Answer 4

The Equality Act 2010 explicitly
states that it is against the law to
treat any person unfairly or less
favourably than someone else
because of a personal
characteristic.

Question 5

What are the 4 main typed of discrimination?

Answer 5

• Direct discrimination
• Indirect discrimination
• Harassment
• Victimisation

Question 7

list 3 examples of direct discrimination

Answer 7

• Ordinary direct discrimination
• Direct discrimination by association
• Direct discrimination by perception

Question 8

Which type of direct discrimination is this?:

“Manager Louise is looking to fill a role which will require the successful applicant to then
complete difficult training. She instructs her HR manager to discount her team’s younger
members, presuming they will not want the hard work. She also tells HR to discount older
members, thinking they will not adapt to the change. Instead she shortlists Bruce and Mikel,
believing people in their mid-thirties are more likely to have the necessary blend of ambition and sense of responsibility. Her actions are likely to be discriminatory.”

Answer 8

ordinary

Question 9

Which type of direct discrimination is this?:

Senior manager Jurgen decides not to invite employee Sarah and her partner Claude to a
business party because Claude is much older than her. Jurgen feels Claude would not fit in with the party mood. This is likely to be discriminatory.

Answer 9

Direct

Question 10

Which type of direct discrimination is this?:

Siobhan is turned down for a supervisor’s job because her bosses decide she does not look
mature enough for the role. They think she looks about 20. In fact, she is 30. Her bosses’
decision is likely to be discriminatory.”

Answer 10

perception

Question 11

define indirect discrimination

Answer 11

It is often unintentional and occurs when a ‘provision’, ‘criterion’ or ‘practice’ and covers the following elements:
1. It is applied to everyone in the same way, despite a subset of the group having the affected
protected characteristic
2. Puts those who share the characteristic at a disadvantage compared to other groups
3. Disadvantages, or would disadvantage, an employee or job applicant
4. The employer is unable to justify it as required for meeting a legitimate aim

Question 12

what type of discrimination is this?

City centre gym manager Esme tells employees she needs two more staff to work on reception.
She adds that anyone interested needs to look ‘fit and enthusiastic’ as the gym is trying to
encourage more young people to join. Her requirement may indirectly discriminate against older
staff unless it can be objectively justified.

Answer 12

indirect

Question 13

define harassment

Answer 13

Unwanted conduct related to the characteristic

“The harassment must have the purpose or effect of violating a person’s dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for them. This can include
bullying, nicknames, threats, intrusive or inappropriate questions and comments, excluding them (ignoring, not inviting them to meetings or events etc) or insults. It can be verbal, written or
physical. Also, unwanted jokes and/or gossip which they find offensive can be harassment. To say the behaviour was not meant to be harassment or that the comments were ‘banter’ is no
defence.

Question 14

Question 15

define victimisation

Answer 15

When an employee suffers detriment because they made or supported a complaint, gave
evidence, raised a grievance or initiated an employment tribunal

Question 16

what is this an example of?

Manager Alan tells apprentice Reyansh he is happy with his progress and performance.
Reyansh then feels confident enough to tell Alan that some of the older employees regularly make fun of him because of his age and play pranks such as leaving toys where he’s working.
Reyansh wants this to stop. Alan tells Reyansh to toughen up and that the firm has no time for complainers. Some weeks later Alan punishes Reyansh for complaining by cancelling his training course. This is likely to be victimisation

Answer 16

victimisation

Question 17

define ‘objective justification’

Answer 17

it is s where employers or service providers CAN discriminate, but they must show
that they have a good reason for
discriminating on the basis of age.
Eg an employer could impose an age
limit where physical fitness is
required (eg firefighter)

Question 18

From the Equality and Human Rights Commission (2020), give examples of situations of ‘objective justification

Answer 18

Question 19

What is the problem with the equality act?

Answer 19

• arbitrary nature of “objective justification”

Question 20

What barrier did the The LASPO Act add?

Answer 20

Introduction of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act in 2012
* Significantly limited access to legal aid, in particular, the financial criteria, making it more challenging to fight back
against discrimination