Discrimination at Work

DISCRIMINATION AT WORK

Laws of European Union recognize several types of discrimination which can take place at work or any other area of public life. There are discrimination based on:

gender (especially discrimination of women. Women sometimes may find it difficult to compete for certain positions with male candidates. There were cases when women were asked to leave the job after they got married or they became pregnant.)

racial and ethnic origin (as the European Union is mix of many nationalities and races, this part of anti-discrimination laws is particulary strong. We have to bear in mind that especially countries in the western part of the EU were and still are a major choice for immigrants from african, asian and eastern european countries)

religion and belief (this type of discrimination gets increasing attention as originally the major religion in the Europe was Christianity, however nowadays there is growing community of Muslims – especially UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy – and they bring their own religion and traditions with them. Sometimes they might encounter problems with settling down and being accepted (eg major issue of a ban of building minarets in Switzerland, law forbiding of wearing hijabs in french public schools etc.).

disability (people with physical or mental disabilities have typically problems to integrate into the rest of the labour force, therefore in the EU there are many laws helping them to do so, however there are lots of opponents, who talk about positive discriminaton of disabled people (eg. in some EU countries, companies which employ disabled people get tax benefits)

age (job candidates should not be asked their age, neither be declined the job because of their age. This part of anti-discriminatory policy in the EU is still major issue especially in south European countries (Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Malta, Cyprus), where for customer facing roles employees prefer younger candidates or even put maximum age as a requirement for applicants)

sexual orientation (enforcing position of people with different sexual orientation becomes stronger especially in recent years, with some countries introducing same sex marriages (Spain, Sweden, UK) and another steps towards homosexual community in EU. This is particulary strong especially in UK, which has the strongest, so called "gay lobby" within the whole European Union.)

However this whole situation is not that simple as there might be mixed discrimination (eg age and gender – older women might find it particulary difficult to find a job; age, gender and racial origin – older Roma women etc.).

EU law regarding discrimination is getting stronger and one of the conditions for new joining countries is to have their laws regarding all classes of discrimination at the same level or stronger as those, which are valid inside the European Union. This forces