Fair Employment (Northern Ireland) Act 1976 (repealed 1.3.1999)

16 Meaning of “discrimination” and “unlawful discrimination”.N.I.

(1)In this Act “discrimination” means—

(a)discrimination on the ground of religious belief or political opinion; or

(b)discrimination by way of victimisation;

and “discriminate” shall be construed accordingly.

[F1(2)A person discriminates against another person on the grounds of religious belief or political opinion in any circumstances relevant for the purposes of this Act if—

(a)on either of those grounds he treats that other less favourably than he treats or would treat other persons, or

(b)he applies to that other a requirement or condition which he applies or would apply equally to persons not of the same religious belief or political opinion as that other but—

(i)which is such that the proportion of persons of the same religious belief or of the same political opinion as that other who can comply with it is considerably smaller than the proportion of persons not of that religious belief or, as the case requires, not of that political opinion who can comply with it, and

(ii)which he cannot show to be justifiable irrespective of the religious belief or political opinion of the person to whom it is applied, and

(iii)which is to the detriment of the other because he cannot comply with it.]

(3)For the purposes of this Act a person discriminates against another person (“the person victimised”) by way of victimisation if he treats that other person less favourably in any circumstances than he treats or would treat any other person in those circumstances, and does so by reason that the person victimised has—

(a)made a complaint against him or any other person under this Act of unlawful discrimination, or

(b)given evidence or information in connection with any such complaint or any investigation, legal proceedings or appeal under [F2the Fair Employment (Northern Ireland) Acts], or

(c)alleged that he or any other person has committed an act which (whether or not the allegation so states) would amount to a contravention of [F3those Acts], or

(d)otherwise done anything under or by reference to [F3those Acts] in relation to him or any other person,

or by reason that he knows the person victimised intends to do any of these things, or that he suspects the person victimised has done, or intends to do any of them.

(4)Subsection (3) does not apply to treatment of a person by reason of any allegation made by him if the allegation was false and not made in good faith.

[F4(4A)A comparison of the cases of persons of different religious belief or political opinion under subsection (2) must be such that the relevant circumstances in the one case are the same, or not materially different, in the other.]

(5)For the purposes of this Act a person commits unlawful discrimination against another if he does an act in relation to that other which is unlawful by virtue of this Part, or if he is treated by virtue of any provision of Part IV as doing such an act.