Discrimination in the Workplace: : A Practical Guide

Citation

Bastin, G. (1999), "Discrimination in the Workplace: : A Practical Guide", Personnel Review, Vol. 28 No. 1/2, pp. 153-154. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr.1999.28.1_2.153.2

This book sets out to provide a general overview of the law relating to equal opportunities. It is intended to be a practical guide on the law (and on good practice) for employers and managers, as well as a source of information for those who are called on to give advice in discrimination cases. On the first page of the book, a reference is made to the rapidly increasing number of cases based on discrimination and then the hope is expressed that the book will “help to reduce the number of claims”. This rather ambitious claim seems to suggest that the guidance given in the book will help to deter the pursuit of excessively weak cases and encourage early settlement of the more meritorious claims. With that objective in mind, it is understandable that little is included about industrial tribunal procedure or remedies. On the other hand, some of the early (pre‐hearing) stages of procedure can be vital in terms of bringing about an agreed settlement and, therefore, it is surprising that such a small amount of space is devoted to the “Procedure for bringing a complaint”, on p. 295 (three pages in total out of 321 pages in the book). In particular, the questionnaire procedure (which is generally accepted as a crucial step in the making of a discrimination claim and has been the subject of an advisory booklet by Tamara Lewis ‐ How to Use the Questionnaire Procedure is only very briefly mentioned.

Given that the book is intended primarily as a practical guide, the absence of discussion on the meaning of discrimination is understandable, although there are occasions ‐ even in a book of this sort ‐ when such an exercise might have proved useful. One place in the book where more needed to be said about the concept of discrimination was the otherwise very helpful chapter on disability discrimination. Chapter 3 gives a clear and accurate account of the law but does not bring out the fact that the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 shows a departure from the established pattern in earlier legislation. It might have been helpful to make some comparison between the approach taken in the 1995 Act and earlier legislation and ‐ in particular ‐ to emphasise the lack of provision for indirect discrimination in the later Act, as well as the revising of the direct discrimination claim, so that potential applicants and respondents can expect to gain a clear idea of the type of conduct proscribed by the Act.

Part of the book which might be regarded as a weakness is Chapter 14 on equal pay. In particular, leading cases such as Enderby v. Frenchay Health Authority and Hayward v. Cammell‐Laird are given too little attention in view of their importance. The first of these two cases is only referred to as a 1993 decision from the European Court on certain preliminary points and no mention is made of the fact that the case has finally been settled this year in a blaze of publicity. As for the Hayward case (the first case to go through the legal system on an equal value claim and a decision of enormous importance and interest for the law on equal pay), it has been misspelt as “Heywood” as well as being summarily dealt with. (On the subject of typographical errors, there are rather more than seems acceptable in the book as a whole.) The weight given to some of the influential judgements elsewhere in the book might also be questioned. James v. Eastleigh Borough Council, for example (on p. 70) and Schmidt v. Austick’s Bookshop (on p. 133) are somewhat marginalised.

Apart from one or two ambiguities here and there and the omission of some important cases (such as Tower Boot v. Jones ‐ a recent Court of Appeal decision on vicarious liability in a racial harassment case) the book, overall, provides a reasonable basic introduction to discrimination law and practice. However, it might better be regarded as a convenient starting point than a comprehensive source of legal and practical advice.