Under federal and state legislation, unlawful discrimination occurs when someone, or a group of people, is treated less favourably than another person or group because of their race, colour, national or ethnic origin; sex, pregnancy or marital status; age; disability; religion; sexual preference; trade union activity; or some other characteristic specified under anti-discrimination or human rights legislation.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employment_discrimination)
1.2 The situation of workplace discrimination
No matter in a factory or a hotel , workplace discrimination can occur in these same place as following:
1.recruiting and selecting staff
2.terms, conditions and benefits offered as part of employment
3.who receives training and what sort of training is offered
4.who is considered and selected for transfer, promotion, retrenchment or dismissal.
1.3 The nature of discrimination
Discrimination behaviour can range from serious to less serious levels, however one-off incidents can still constitute descrimination. Also, where continued, such behaviour can undermine the standard of conduct within a work area, which may erode the well being of the individual or group being targeted and lead to lower overall staff performance.
The absence of complaints is not necessarily an indication that no discrimination is occurring. The person subjected to or discriminating behaviour does not always complain. This is not necessarily because the act is trivial, but because the person may lack the confidence to speak up on their own behalf or feel too intimidated to complain.
1.4 Types of workplace discrimination
Direct discrimination
Direct discrimination happens when an employer treats an employee less favourably than someone else because of one of the above reasons. For example,in one hotel it would be direct discrimination if a front desk jops were only open to female applicants.