5 Types of Workplace Discrimination Every Employee Should Know About

5 Types of Workplace Discrimination Every Employee Should Know About

When it comes to workplace discrimination there are certain scenarios where it is cut and dried and other situations where it is not so clear without further investigation, but there are several key examples of discrimination that every worker should be aware of.

It is illegal to discriminate against an employee based on things such as gender, race, or religion, for example, but, in general terms, employment discrimination is normally deemed to have occurred when it is shown that a person has been unfavourably treated based on their age, skin colour, or any other facet that should not be relevant to their ability to do their job.

Here is a look at some of the main types of discrimination.

Your age should be irrelevant

Getting some background information from Optimum Employment Lawyers, for example, you will quickly discover that there are many examples of discrimination in the workplace and some that occur more often than others.

Age discrimination is a practice widely protected by employment laws and that means that employees are entitled to receive the same benefits and treatment as anyone else, regardless of how young or old you are.

Religion should not be an issue

Your religious beliefs or practices should not be relevant to your employer and are not grounds for them to discriminate against you, meaning they should take steps to treat everyone equally.

Gender discrimination

Another form of discrimination that is often that basis of a claim is when an employer offers a different level of responsibility or wage based on your gender.

Employers are not allowed to discriminate on the basis of a person’s gender and if a man or a woman can display the same level of qualifications or ability as their counterpart of the opposite sex, they are entitled to be treated equally.

Retaliation is a common issue

If you are looking for probably the most common form of discrimination in the workplace it is retaliation that will feature prominently.

This form of discrimination cuts across all the other defined boundaries such as race and religion, and a typical example of retaliation discrimination would be when your employer seeks to punish you in some way for doing or saying something that they didn’t like.

If you have highlighted a practice in your workplace that is unfair or unlawful, you should be able to voice these concerns without fear of reprisals.

Disability

It is, unfortunately, more common than you might think for someone to be denied a job opportunity or fail to progress in a company because of their disability.

Disability discrimination can also be when there are not adequate or correct facilities for disabled employees in the workplace.

Sexism in the workplace

Sexual discrimination is a hot topic in the workplace and although sexism is not the same as it might have been in the past there are plenty of sex discrimination cases that are filed each year.

Sex discrimination takes many different forms and levels, but it is not acceptable and there are employment laws in place that are designed to stamp this practice out as best as possible.

If you feel that you have been subjected to some form of discrimination at your place of work you should not be expected to tackle the problem alone and legal help is available if you are not able to resolve the issue on your own.

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