Equality Act 2004
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Amendment of section 6. |
4.—Section 6 (discrimination for purposes of Act) of the Act of 1998 is amended— | |
(a) by substituting the following subsection for subsection (1): | ||
“(1) For the purposes of this Act and without prejudice to its provisions relating to discrimination occurring in particular circumstances discrimination shall be taken to occur where— | ||
(a) a person is treated less favourably than another person is, has been or would be treated in a comparable situation on any of the grounds specified in subsection (2) (in this Act referred to as the ‘discriminatory grounds’) which— | ||
(i) exists, | ||
(ii) existed but no longer exists, | ||
(iii) may exist in the future, or | ||
(iv) is imputed to the person concerned, | ||
(b) a person who is associated with another person— | ||
(i) is treated, by virtue of that association, less favourably than a person who is not so associated is, has been or would be treated in a comparable situation, and | ||
(ii) similar treatment of that other person on any of the discriminatory grounds would, by virtue of paragraph (a), constitute discrimination.”, | ||
(b) by inserting the following subsection after subsection (2): | ||
“(2A) Without prejudice to the generality of subsections (1) and (2), discrimination on the gender ground shall be taken to occur where, on a ground related to her pregnancy or maternity leave, a woman employee is treated, contrary to any statutory requirement, less favourably than another employee is, has been or would be treated.”, | ||
and | ||
(c) by substituting the following subsection for subsection (3): | ||
“(3) (a) The age ground applies only in relation to persons above the maximum age at which a person is statutorily obliged to attend school. | ||
(b) Notwithstanding subsection (1) and section 37(2), an employer may set a minimum age, not exceeding 18 years, for recruitment to a post. | ||
(c) Offering a fixed term contract to a person over the compulsory retirement age for that employment or to a particular class or description of employees in that employment shall not be taken as constituting discrimination on the age ground. | ||
(d) Subsection (1)(b) of section 2 (exclusions) of the Unfair Dismissals Act 1977 is amended by deleting ‘or who on that date was a person to whom by reason of his age the Redundancy Payments Acts 1967 to 1973, did not apply’ and inserting ‘or who on that date had not attained the age of 16 years’.”. |