How To Deal With Unfair Discrimination In The Workplace

Working out how to deal with unfair discrimination in the workplace begins with a distinction that saves a great deal of wasted effort. Not all differentiation is unlawful.

Employers differentiate constantly and lawfully. Paying more for greater responsibility. Requiring a qualification the role genuinely needs. Rostering by availability. Promoting on demonstrated performance. None of that is discrimination in the legal sense, however unwelcome it feels.

It becomes unlawful when the difference is based on a protected attribute, or when a neutral rule disadvantages a group without being reasonable.

So the useful question is not whether you were treated differently. It is whether the reason connects to an attribute, or whether a requirement applied to you was genuinely necessary.

If neither is true, it may be poor management rather than discrimination, and a different route applies.

The Australian Human Rights Commission covers the attributes. This is general information rather than legal advice, and obligations vary by state and territory.

See Sentrient’s EEO training course and discrimination articles.