For more information concerning race discrimination and racism, read Human Rights in British Columbia: Racial Discrimination.
Political belief
As an employer, you must not discriminate against an employee on the basis of political beliefs, affiliations or participation. Complaints of discrimination based on political belief are relatively rare.
Typically, the only employers interested in an employee’s political beliefs are political parties (where, the party, as the employer, may have a bona fide reason to discriminate on the basis of an applicant’s or incumbent’s political affiliation).
Religion
The prohibition of discrimination on the basis of religion encompasses religious practices such as prayer, dietary and clothing requirements and religious holy days. In general, an employee should be free to abide by legitimate faith-based rules or tenets, or the mandated practices of any given religion, without detrimental repercussions in the workplace. The prohibition of discrimination on the basis of religion is intended to limit circumstances where employees are forced to choose between their religious obligations and their employment.
Marital or family status
Marital status includes relationships with a “spousal-like” quality. The protection from discrimination extends to spouse-like relationships, regardless of whether or not the claimant is actually married, single, divorced, widowed, separated, or living common law. The code also prohibits discrimination on the basis of one’s relationship with a particular person.
Family status typically refers to parent-child relationships, but may also extend to other familial connections. In some circumstances, one’s relationships or connections between siblings, in-laws, uncles or aunts, brothers and sisters, nephews and nieces, and cousins may fall within the family-status ground. The HRC also prohibits discrimination on the basis of one’s familial relation to a particular person.
For obvious reasons, family and marital status issues often overlap and are commonly cited together in discrimination complaints in order to better illustrate the nature of the complaint.
Physical or mental disability
Disability, as a protected ground under the code, is not defined in the legislation, nor are any specific disabilities named in the statute. This allows for a very broad and open-ended interpretation.
A disability can be a real or perceived mental or physical disability, whether visible or non-visible, permanent or temporary. Disability can include all major diseases and illnesses, including:
| cancer |
cerebral palsy
|
| Alzheimer’s |
epilepsy |
| Crohn’s |
heart attack and heart conditions |
| arthritis |
HIV and AIDS |
| drug and/or alcohol dependencies |
developmental delay & learning disabilities |
| obesity |
mental illness |
For more information concerning disability as a protected ground of discrimination, read Human Rights in British Columbia: Disability Discrimination.
Sex and sexual orientation
The protection from sex discrimination includes protection for males and females, protection against sexual harassment, protection against pregnancy discrimination and, more recently, protection against transgendered discrimination.
Protection from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation includes protection for gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and heterosexuals.
For more information concerning sex and sexual orientation as a protected ground of discrimination, read Human Rights in British Columbia: Discrimination based on Sexual Orientation.
Age
Prior to January 1, 2008, age was defined in the HRC 19 years of age but less than 65 years of age. However, that definition has since been amended to “an age of 19 years or more” to extend protection from age discrimination to people 65 years and older. The effect is to provide employees with the choice of whether to continue working past age 65 and to allow claims of discrimination in employment if employees are required to retire at age 65.
For more information concerning on age as protected ground of discrimination, read Human Rights in British Columbia: Age Discrimination.
Criminal or summary conviction
As an employer, you are prohibited from discriminating against anyone who has been convicted of a criminal or summary conviction offence unrelated to the employment or the intended employment of that person. This protection also extends to “perceived convictions,” where a person has been arrested but not convicted.
If you decide not to hire based on an individual’s conviction, you must demonstrate a degree of "relatedness" between the conviction and the work to be performed. You must consider the circumstances of the conviction, including the details of the offence, the length of time intervening between the conviction and the employment decision, the employment history of the individual concerned, his age at the time of the offence and his efforts at rehabilitation.
Human rights adjudicators will evaluate the legitimacy of an employer’s decision by asking the following questions:
- Does the behaviour for which the charge was laid, if repeated, pose any threat to the employers’ ability to carry on its business safely and efficiently?
- What were the circumstances of the charge and the particulars of the offence involved?
- How much time has elapsed between the charge and the employment decision?
- What has the individual done during that period of time?
- Has the individual shown any tendencies to repeat the kind of behaviour for which he or she was charged?
- Has the individual shown a firm intention to achieve rehabilitation?
Information provided by HARRIS & COMPANY. For more information about HARRIS & COMPANY, please visit harrisco.com
