Indirect Discrimination
Indirect discrimination means rules, policies or practices that are the ‘same’ for everyone but has an unfair effect on a particular group. Below is an example of indirect discrimination.
Situation
An organisation is holding an open day and has advertised for volunteers to operate some stalls, providing information to people. A position description has been designed which says the person needs to be able to stand for their shift. A potential volunteer calls to find out more about this position. During the phone call, the person indicates they would need to sit for the shift due to an injury to their back. The coordinator explains that the position description says they need to stand for the shift, so perhaps they need to look at another position instead. This would exclude some people who want to volunteer, but are not able to stand for a long time. This is indirect discrimination. Why? Because whether the volunteer sits or stands does not affect the volunteers’ capacity to undertake the inherent requirements of the work. Also, chairs can be provided without impacting greatly on the organisation.
It may not be unlawful to discriminate on the ground of disability if the person would be unable to carry out the inherent requirements of the particular position because of his or her disability, or would require services or facilities which would impose an unjustifiable hardship on the employer. For more information on unjustifiable hardship, please refer to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission.