Jersey Disability Discrimination – One Year On

Disability has now been a 'protected characteristic' under Jersey law for a year, and so we thought it would be helpful to review the law and consider the claims that we are starting to see.

By way of reminder, there are three main forms of disability discrimination:

• Direct discrimination - being less favourable treatment because of a disability. This requires a direct comparison between the employee with the disability and an employee without the disability and is notoriously difficult to prove. Direct discrimination can never be justified, although an employer may be able to rely on other defences or exceptions in the law such as an occupational requirement;
  
  
• Discrimination arising as a consequence of disability - this applies where a person is treated unfavourably due to something which results from the disability (for example, if a disabled employee's condition results in disruptive behaviour, by imposing a sanction you may be discriminating against