Equal Treatment in Employment and Occupation
Equal Treatment in Employment and Occupation : EU Directive 2000/78 EC of 27 November 2000, establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation, puts in place a general framework to ensure equal treatment of individuals in the European Union (EU), regardless of their religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation, as regards access to employment or occupation and membership of certain organizations. This Directive is part of a package of measures to combat discrimination. The package also includes a Communication from the European Commission presenting the general framework of action, a proposal for a Directive implementing the principle of equal treatment regardless of race or ethnic origin, and an Action Programme to combat discrimination (2001-06). The EU Member States ban discrimination in the field of employment and occupation. However, the scope of this prohibition, its content and enforceability vary from country to country. Hence this Directive is designed to lay down a general minimum framework in this area. Directive 2000/78 EC concerns the following areas: (1) conditions of access to employed or self-employed activities, including promotion; (2) vocational training; (3) employment and working conditions (including pay and dismissals); (4) membership of and involvement in an organization of employers or workers or any, other organization whose members carry on a particular profession. This applies as much to the public sector as to the private sector, including public bodies, as well as for paid and unpaid work. It does not cover discrimination based on sex because this principle has already been addressed in Community legislation (notably in Directive 76/207 EEC on equal treatment for men and women as regards access to employment, vocational training and promotion and working conditions and Directive 86/613 EEC on equal treatment between men and women engaged in an activity, including agriculture in a self-employed capacity). The Directive aims to combat both direct discrimination (differential treatment based on a specific characteristic) and indirect discrimination (any provision, criterion or practice that is neutral on the face of it but is liable to adversely affect one or more specific individuals or incite discrimination). Harassment, which creates a hostile environment, is deemed to be discrimination. Reasonable arrangements must be made to guarantee the principle of equal treatment for disabled persons, limiting it to cases that do not involve unjustified difficulties. In certain cases, differences in treatment may be justified by the nature of the post or the conditions in which the job is performed. Differences in treatment on grounds of age are permissible when they are objectively and reasonably justified by a legitimate labour market aim and are appropriate and necessary to the achievement of that aim (protection of young people and older workers, requirements as to the extent of job experience, etc EU Member States have the right to maintain and adopt measures intended to prevent or compensate for existing inequalities (measures to promote the integration of young people, the transition from work to retirement, etc The Directive contains a "non-regression" clause, which concerns EU Member States whose legislation provides for a higher level of protection than that afforded by the Directive. Despite affirmation of the principle of equal treatment between men and women by Community law, enforcement of this principle has proved extremely difficult in practice. For this reason the proposal includes a series of mechanisms to ensure effective remedies in the event of discrimination. These mechanisms rely on: improvement of legal protection by reinforcing access to justice or to conciliation procedures (both in the form of individual access and by empowering organizations to exercise this right on behalf of a victim); shifting the burden of proof: once facts have been established from which it may be presumed that there has been discrimination, the burden of proof lies with the defendant, in compliance with Directive 97/80 EC and the case law of the Court of Justice in the case of sex discrimination; protection of victims of discrimination against reprisals, and notably dismissal; dissemination of adequate information on the Directive's provisions (once adopted) to vocational training and educational bodies and within the workplace. See: Burden of proof in cases of discrimination based on sex; Disability strategy of the European Union; Discrimination; Discrimination (employment and occupation)
No records Found