Allegations of discrimination in the recruitment process

Section 8 of the Employment Equality Act 1998 to 2015 states that it is unlawful for an employer to discriminate against an employee or prospective employee with respect to access to employment. Critical to this is that an individual does not have to be an employee in order to take a claim against an organisation in relation to access to employment. Thus, a non-employee has scope to take a claim if they feel a decision not to recruit them was based on one of the 9 grounds protected from discrimination under the Act. As a result of this, employers should ensure to operate fair recruitment procedures that are free from any form of discrimination from the outset. This includes job advertisements, interview criteria and the reasoning behind being unsuccessful in obtaining a position.