The Northern Ireland Equality Commission have been found guilty of indirect sex discrimination and although the tribunal recognised they had done so unintentionally they were still ordered to pay £8,000 to the claimant.
Simply put, indirect sex discrimination generally describes a situation whereby you apply a criteria, policy or practice to everyone but it disproportionately causes a disadvantage to one gender more than the other.
It does sound as if the Equality Commission were genuinely not intending to discriminate in this case (and one would hope so what with them being the equality commission & all that!) but it is a stark reminder to be cautious in how you apply working practices and make employment decisions.
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