Discrimination and Equality Based Claims in the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC)

equality in workplac

There are 9 grounds of discrimination recognised in Irish law:

  • Gender
  • Civil status
  • Family status
  • Sexual orientation
  • Religion
  • Age
  • Disability
  • Race (includes race, colour, nationality or ethnic or national origins)
  • Membership of the travelling community.

If your claim to the WRC cannot be based on one of these grounds you may have been treated unfairly or harshly or rudely or appallingly badly, but you have not been discriminated against.

If you have a discrimination based claim it may be one of the following:

  1. You have been discriminated against by an employer, potential employer, employment agency, or other body
  2. You have not received equal pay because of one or more of the 9 grounds (if your equal pay complaint cannot be based on a discriminatory ground you have no claim for discrimination as there is nothing unlawful about paying a different rate of pay for the same work)
  3. The Pensions Act, 1980 prohibits discrimination in respect of occupational pensions-you may not have been allowed to join an occupational pension of have been treated less favourably
  4. An employment agreement contains a provision which is discriminatory, contrary to sections 8 and 9 of the Employment Equality Act, 1998
  5. The Equal Status Acts 2000-2008 allows a discriminatory claim to be brought against a person or company who supplies goods or services or facilities.

Claims from 1 to 4 above are commenced by filling out a form, EE2, which you send to the person who you claim has discriminated against you. They reply on form EE3. If they don’t reply inferences can be drawn from this.

Once you have received their response you can then decide whether to bring a claim to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) under the Employment Equality acts.

Claims Under Equal Status Acts

Not a lot of people know this..

Most people think the WRC (Workplace Relations Commission) only deals with employment and/or industrial relations issues.

That’s not the case, at all.

The Workplace Relations Commission also deals with complaints about discrimination in the provision of goods and services, accommodation, and access to education under the Equal Status Acts 2000-2015.

Discrimination in the context of employment has 9 grounds of discrimination. But under equality legislation there is now 10 grounds of discrimination, thanks to the Equality (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2015, which created a 10th ground in respect of housing assistance.

The main thrust of the Equal Status acts is to prevent discrimination in relation to the provision of all services, including entertainment, banking, transport, travel, insurance, and more.

The 10 grounds of discrimination covered by the Equal Status acts are

  • Gender
  • Civil status
  • Race/colour/nationality
  • Family status
  • Sexual orientation
  • Age
  • Membership of the travelling community
  • Disability
  • Housing assistance in relation to the provision of residential accommodation

How to Make a Complaint to the WRC

The first thing you must do is to complete and send a form-ES1-which is a notification in writing to the person/company who you are complaining about. This form must specify the act of alleged discrimination and must be received by the other party within 2 months’ of the incident.

The other party does not have to respond, but if he chooses to do so may use form ES2.

If the other party ignores you and does not respond within 1 month, or you are not happy with the reply, you can then refer the complaint to the WRC for adjudication. This referral must be made within 6 months of the alleged discrimination.

In due course an adjudication hearing will be heard and both parties can put their side of the story forward and the adjudicator will make a decision.

Equal Status Acts in Ireland

The relevant legislation is:

  • The Equal Status Act, 2000
  • The Equality Act, 2004
  • The Equal Status (Amendment) Act, 2012
  • The Equality (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2015.

The Law Reform Commission has published a consolidated version of the Equal Status Acts which you can access here.