Kara-Je Kell­man

Stu­dent, Hugh Wood­ing Law School

In a mul­ti-re­li­gious so­ci­ety like T&T it is use­ful for both em­ploy­ers and em­ploy­ees to know what cir­cum­stances may give rise to dis­crim­i­na­tion on the ground of re­li­gion in the work­place.Sec­tion 4 of the Con­sti­tu­tion recog­nis­es and pro­tects the fun­da­men­tal hu­man right of free­dom of con­science and re­li­gious be­lief and ob­ser­vance with­out dis­crim­i­na­tion.The Equal Op­por­tu­ni­ty Act Chap. 22:03 pro­vides fur­ther pro­tec­tion against dis­crim­i­na­tion in em­ploy­ment.

Sec­tions 8 to 10 of the Act pro­vides, among oth­er things, that an em­ploy­er must not dis­crim­i­nate against an em­ploy­ee in the terms or con­di­tions of em­ploy­ment or in the way the em­ploy­er gives the per­son ac­cess to ben­e­fits, ser­vices, trans­fer and train­ing. In ad­di­tion, an em­ploy­er must not dis­crim­i­nate against a per­son by dis­miss­ing him or sub­ject­ing them to any oth­er dis­ad­van­tage.

There is an ex­cep­tion to the above on the ground of re­li­gion where be­ing of a par­tic­u­lar re­li­gion is a nec­es­sary qual­i­fi­ca­tion for em­ploy­ment in a re­li­gious shop. Al­so, the Act does not gen­er­al­ly ap­ply to re­li­gious bod­ies.

Mean­ing of dis­crim­i­na­tion

Dis­crim­i­na­tion ex­ists where a per­son is treat­ed, in cir­cum­stances that are the same, or are not dif­fer­ent in any sig­nif­i­cant way, less favourably than an­oth­er per­son of a dif­fer­ent sta­tus.

Dis­crim­i­na­tion may be di­rect or in­di­rect. Di­rect dis­crim­i­na­tion ex­ists where a per­son dis­crim­i­nates against an­oth­er by rea­son of their sta­tus. The sta­tus of a per­son means any of the fol­low­ing: the sex, race, eth­nic­i­ty, ori­gin (in­clud­ing ge­o­graph­i­cal ori­gin), re­li­gion, mar­i­tal sta­tus, or any dis­abil­i­ty of that per­son.

In­di­rect dis­crim­i­na­tion ex­ists where the dis­crim­i­na­tion is by rea­son of a char­ac­ter­is­tic that re­lates gen­er­al­ly to peo­ple of the sta­tus of the of­fend­ed per­son or a char­ac­ter­is­tic that is gen­er­al­ly as­so­ci­at­ed with peo­ple of the sta­tus of the of­fend­ed per­son.

Dis­crim­i­na­tion byVic­tim­i­sa­tion

Un­der sec­tion 6 (1) of the Act, dis­crim­i­na­tion by vic­tim­i­sa­tion ex­ists where a per­son ('the dis­crim­i­na­tor') treats an­oth­er per­son less favourably than he treats or would treat oth­er per­sons in those cir­cum­stances, and such treat­ment is be­cause the vic­timised per­son has:

�2 brought pro­ceed­ings against the dis­crim­i­na­tor or has giv­en ev­i­dence or in­for­ma­tion in con­nec­tion with pro­ceed­ings brought by any per­son against the dis­crim­i­na­tor or any oth­er per­son; or

�2 done any­thing un­der or by ref­er­ence to the Act, or any rel­e­vant law, in re­la­tion to the dis­crim­i­na­tor or any oth­er per­son;

�2 or al­leged that the dis­crim­i­na­tor or any oth­er per­son has com­mit­ted an act, which would amount to a breach of the Act, or any rel­e­vant law.

Dis­crim­i­na­tion by vic­tim­i­sa­tion al­so ex­ists where such "less favourable" treat­ment is due to the dis­crim­i­na­tor's knowl­edge that the per­son vic­timised in­tends to do any of those things stat­ed above or sus­pects the per­son vic­timised has done, or in­tends to do, any of them.

Re­dress

The Act sets up a com­mis­sion called the Equal Op­por­tu­ni­ty Com­mis­sion. A per­son who claims that an­oth­er per­son has dis­crim­i­nat­ed against him or her may file a writ­ten com­plaint with the Com­mis­sion, set­ting out the de­tails of the al­leged act of dis­crim­i­na­tion. The Com­mis­sion is un­der a du­ty to in­ves­ti­gate every com­plaint.