Fair Employment and Treatment Order (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2003

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These Regulations, which are made under section 2(2)(a) and (b) of the European Communities Act 1972, implement Council Directive 2000/78/EC of 27th November 2000 establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation (O.J. L303, 2.12.2000, p. 16) so far as it relates to discrimination on grounds of religion or belief.

The Regulations amend the Fair Employment and Treatment (Northern Ireland) Order 1998 (“the Order”) in order to reflect the provisions of the Directive. The amendments come into operation on 10th December 2003, subject to transitional provisions (regulation 2).

Regulation 4 sets out a new definition of indirect discrimination in the areas of employment (and related matters) and vocational training with which the Directive is concerned.

Regulation 5 sets out a new definition of harassment which will apply in the areas with which the Directive is concerned.

Regulation 6 contains an expanded definition of “employment in Northern Ireland”.

Regulation 7 confers a duty on the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland to work towards the elimination of harassment and regulation 8 enables the Commission to issue codes of practice on the elimination of harassment.

Regulation 9 makes it unlawful for an employer to subject to harassment an employee or an applicant for employment.

Regulation 10 makes it unlawful for a principal to subject a contract worker to harassment.

Regulation 11 makes it unlawful to discriminate against, or harass, certain types of office-holder.

Regulations 12 to 15 and 17 make it unlawful for persons with statutory power to select employees for others and for bodies such as employment agencies, employer organisations or trades unions, persons providing training services and persons with power to confer qualifications, to subject a person to harassment.

Regulation 16 makes it unlawful for the Department for Employment and Learning to discriminate against, or harass, a person in the provision of facilities and services relating to its functions under the Employment and Training Act 1950.

Regulation 18 inserts a new Article 25A into the Order. Article 25A makes it unlawful for the trustees or managers of an occupational pension scheme, when carrying out their functions, to discriminate against or harass a member or prospective member of the scheme. Article 25A also inserts a new Schedule 2A into the Order. By virtue of Schedule 2A every occupational pension scheme is treated as including a non-discrimination rule, trustees and managers are given powers to alter schemes so as to ensure conformity with that rule and provision is made relating to the procedures and remedies which may be granted on certain complaints relating to occupational pension schemes presented to the Fair Employment Tribunal.

Regulation 19 removes the lower limit on the size of partnerships which can discriminate lawfully and clarifies the meaning of certain forms of expulsion from a position as a partner.

Regulation 20 makes it unlawful for bodies in the further and higher education field to subject persons to harassment.

Regulation 21 makes it unlawful for barristers to subject to harassment a pupil or a person who has applied to be a pupil.

Regulation 22 provides that, where there has been a relationship in which certain acts of discrimination or harassment would have been unlawful, it is also unlawful to subject a person to a detriment or harassment by reference to that relationship after the relationship has ended.

Regulation 23 provides that complaints of unlawful discrimination or harassment in the employment and training fields by or against barristers are to be heard by the Fair Employment Tribunal.

Regulations 24 and 27 alter the burden of proof in Tribunal or court proceedings regarding employment or training matters.

Regulations 25 and 26 make consequential amendments.

Regulation 28 ensures that respondents must reply to a claimant’s preliminary questions within eight weeks of being served with them.

Regulations 29 and 30 make amendments to the exceptions to the Order. The general exception for employment in a private household is removed and the provision excepting the employment of a teacher in a school is amended to apply the exception to the recruitment of a person as such a teacher.

Regulation 31 modifies the exception for charities to discriminate in the provision of benefits by removing that exception so far as it relates to employment or vocational training.

Regulation 32 removes the exception for acts, in the employment field, which are done under statutory authority.

Regulation 33 applies to collective agreements and rules of undertakings the provisions of the Order relating to unlawful contracts.

Regulation 34 makes consequential amendments.

A copy of the Regulatory Impact Assessment relating to these Regulations has been placed in the library of the Northern Ireland Assembly and can be obtained from Anti-discrimination Division, Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister, Room E3.06, Castle Buildings, Stormont, Belfast BT4 3SR.