Preventing Discrimination
You can determine whether a seemingly fair requirement, rule, policy or procedure is likely to be fair for some and not others. To do this, ask yourself the following questions.
Does it have a worse impact on:
- women as opposed to men
- people from a certain ethnic or religious backgrounds
- couples as opposed to singles
- pregnant women or families with young children
- people in same-sex relationships
- people with physical disability
- people of a particular age group?
If the answer to any of these questions is "yes", you then need to think about whether the requirement is "reasonable in the circumstances". If it is not reasonable, it may amount to indirect discrimination.