Discriminatory behavior or WHAT IS HAPPENING?

Discriminatory behavior can have different forms that are described in the Antidiscrimination Law.

• Direct discrimination

Direct discrimination based on age happens when a person is treated unfavorably or less favorably because of their age (both youth and advanced age can represent a problem). For example, if an owner of personal agency denies an applicant employment in programming simply because she is 50 years old and sends her away with the explanation that “software firms require young workers”, it would be considered discrimination. Often it happens that firms automatically terminate employment with an employee who reaches pension age even though age is not a substantial factor in the performance of most occupations.

• Indirect discrimination

Indirect discrimination can be any directive, decision, incentive or frequently used procedure that without any objective reason disqualifies a person or group of people, even though it may seem apparent at first that it is not directed against anyone. For example, there is the practice of employers to ask of a candidate for employment to have a specific degree that only began to be offered a few years prior. Automatically, older applicants would be excluded even if they hold a similar level of education as well as practical experience in the field. The argument that a firm would prefer a graduate of its specified school is not sufficient to excuse unequal treatment.

• Harassment

According to the Slovak Antidiscrimination Law, harassment is one form of discrimination. Harassment occurs when someone treats another person unpleasantly, offensively, or in a disregarding way, because that someone maintains a position of power or the authority to decide important things in the life of this person. Seamstresses in a rural area being treated badly by their master would demonstrate such an example. Seamstresses are afraid of losing their jobs while being easily replaced by younger, yet unemployed women in the region, and not being able to find any other placement because of their advanced age. Due to their fear they are willing to bear humiliation, offence, or unfair treatment.

• Incentive and sedition to discrimination; unjustifiable sanction

The law also prohibits any action working as an incentive or sedition to discrimination. To order a discriminating act or persuade someone to discriminate against someone else is against the law. In the above mentioned case, if the master acted upon an incentive from a headmaster, then the headmaster should be punished for discrimination. The law also protects against any unjustifiable sanction that might be cast upon a person when filing a discrimination complaint with the appropriate office, filing suit in court, or testifying in favor of somebody who was discriminated against. For instance, if a young seamstress stood up on the behalf of her older colleagues and subsequently her position in the firm was affected negatively, her superiors would be in breach of antidiscrimination law.