Discrimination occurs when one person is treated less favourably based on either their gender, marital status, family status, religious belief, sexual orientation, age, disability, race or that they are a member of the traveller community.  

An example is where an educational establishment engages in discrimination based on the gender ground, in circumstances where one parent is treated more favourably that the other, such as the mother, in respect of the child’s education. 

Say a father is a joint legal guardian, then Guardianship within the meaning of the Guardianship of Infants Acts gives a right to the father to make decisions in respect of the child. Guardianship rights include the ability to make important decisions such as the child’s education.  

Principles of equality must be applied to both male and female legal guardians.  

Prior to a complainant taking a case for discrimination under the Equal Status Acts, they must within 2 months of the discriminatory conduct notify the educational establishment in writing, setting out the complaint, wait for the response, and if you are not satisfied with this, then make the complaint to the workplace relations commission.   

Complaint Form link a person can avail of: https://www.workplacerelations.ie/en/publications_forms/form-es-1-equal-status-complaint-notification1.pdf

There is a strict time limit for taking legal action for claims of discrimination or harassment under the Equal Status Act.

The legal time frame is only 6 months from the date of the discrimination to commence legal action, and a claim submitted after this time frame is out of time.

Cleary & Co. Solicitors, Litigation Law Firm 

Kieran Cleary and Roger Cleary Employment Law Solicitors can help with questions you may have regarding employment law matters and our numbers are (01) 546 1121 or  (052) 612 1999 or our email address is info@clearysolicitors.com

Please be advised that the above-mentioned material is intended as an overview and as a broad out-line of the topic discussed. It should not be considered as complete and comprehensive legal advice, nor act as an appropriate substitute. Legal advice should be sought from a solicitor prior to relying on anything in this article.

Due care has been taken in the publication of this article and we do not accept legal liability as a result of reliance on any material covered in the above article.