Fair Employment (Northern Ireland) Act 1989

49 Meaning of “discrimination”

(1) In section 16 of the [1976 c. 25.] Fair Employment (Northern Ireland) Act 1976 (meaning in that Act of “discrimination” and “unlawful discrimination”) for subsection (2) there is substituted—

“(2) A person discriminates against another person on the grounds of religious belief or political opinion in any circumstances relevant for the purposes of this Act if—

(a) on either of those grounds he treats that other less favourably than he treats or would treat other persons, or

(b) he applies to that other a requirement or condition which he applies or would apply equally to persons not of the same religious belief or political opinion as that other but—

(i) which is such that the proportion of persons of the same religious belief or of the same political opinion as that other who can comply with it is considerably smaller than the proportion of persons not of that religious belief or, as the case requires, not of that political opinion who can comply with it, and

(ii) which he cannot show to be justifiable irrespective of the religious belief or political opinion of the person to whom it is applied, and

(iii) which is to the detriment of the other because he cannot comply with it.”

(2) After subsection (4) of that section there is inserted—

“(4A) A comparison of the cases of persons of different religious belief or political opinion under subsection (2) must be such that the relevant circumstances in the one case are the same, or not materially different, in the other.”