Workplace Discrimination Laws and Employee Rights

Published on 22nd March 2025

Authored By: Isha Dhir

RIMT University

^[1]Introduction

The constitution of India is obvious in its mandate – “The country shall not discriminate in opposition to any citizen on the grounds of religion, race, caste, intercourse, location of birth or any of them.” But, it’s crucial to notice that this provision is restrained to the state and its entities, and does not cover personal groups. India lacks a complete and codified anti-discrimination statute regulating employers as well as reimbursement for sufferers of discrimination.

Discrimination towards, or profiling of people can arise at stages – pre-recruitment and publish-recruitment. The former involves rejecting capacity applicants on the premise of their gender, faith, caste, marital status, being pregnant and many others., stemming either from sure assumptions concerning their work ethic or product, or personal concerns of recruiters and so forth.

This newsletter seeks to analyse the laws governing discrimination by personal entities, whether or not employees are entitled to repayment in case of such instances in addition to the outcomes for employers.

^[2]What is workplace discrimination?

Place of work discrimination is bigoted or unequal remedy meted out to a person or a set on certain grounds in the workplace. These grounds or traits consist of (however aren’t confined to) sex, gender, identity, age, incapacity, religious ideals, ethnicity, race, and many others.

Workplace discrimination can happen between co-people, company-worker members of the family or maybe all through the procedure of accepting activity packages. motive in place of work discrimination has little price. unconscious or conscious discrimination is illegal and unjust across the globe.

^[3]Workplace discrimination can consist of

Harassment of the worker by means of their friends or superiors.
Illegal interview questions, consisting of asking approximately a female worker’s potential plans to have youngsters.
Demoting, promoting, paying, or terminating employees based totally on discriminatory factors.
not making affordable motels, as described with the aid of the regulation, for personnel with bodily and mental disabilities.
Firing an older worker with higher pay and changing them with a younger one.
Sexual harassment

Unluckily, administrative center discrimination is pervasive. nationwide, there are masses of heaps of cases pronounced to the U.S. same Employment possibility fee (EEOC) each year. On top of that, the fee believes that up to 94% of all workers who face discrimination or harassment no longer document it. in many instances, this is due to:

Fear of retaliation: even though federal and kingdom regulation protects personnel who report discrimination, many still fear their organisation taking poor movement towards them.
Uncertainty about the way to continue: Even in big corporations that have human resources departments, the worker may not be sure who they want to talk to as a way to report a criticism.

What can be the basis for discrimination in the workplace?

While a few types of discrimination, along with fair pay, sexual harassment, and discrimination based on a person’s being pregnant or handicap, are prohibited in India. different varieties of activity discrimination, inclusive of the ones prompted through caste, faith, or ethnicity, are not prohibited within the private sector. But, within the public sector, employees are also included from discrimination on the premise of caste, creed, color, sex, faith, or region of birth in addition to the protections afforded to the ones working in the private quarter.^[4]

^[5]Legal safeguards against harassment and discrimination at work

The Indian government has taken some of actions to shield employees from harassment and discrimination at work. The Sexual Harassment of women at place of job (Prevention, Prohibition, and Redressal) Act become handed by means of the Indian Parliament in 2013. This statute defines sexual harassment and establishes a framework for handling such conditions legally. All girls have to abide by using the legislation, whether or not they’re complete-time or component-time workers, interns, or apprentices. it is also girls who work in the public and personal sectors, as well as within the organised and unorganised sectors.

Employers are required to set up an inner lawsuits Committee (ICC) to simply accept court cases of sexual harassment under the Sexual Harassment of women at place of work Act. The ICC is in fee of searching into the complaint, carrying out an investigation, and offering the first-class course of motion for the accused. The business enterprise need to take the right disciplinary movement, that may variety from a caution to the loss of employment, if the accused is found guilty of sexual harassment. The regulation additionally stipulates a punishment for non-compliance, which can also contain fines and jail time.

Further to the Sexual Harassment of girls at place of job Act, India has diverse legal guidelines that protect workers from prejudice. Discrimination on the basis of religion, ethnicity, caste, sex, or location of delivery is outlawed by using the Indian constitution. identical repayment for identical attempt is assured with the aid of the identical Remuneration Act of 1976. personnel who fall under those businesses are protected against harassment and discrimination by using the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 1989.

People with disabilities are covered from place of business discrimination below the Rights of persons with Disabilities Act of 2016. in keeping with the Act, companies need to offer employees with disabilities with affordable lodges, such as specialised device or place of business modifications. moreover, it forbids discrimination against workers with disabilities via agencies in hiring, selling, and firing choices.

^[6]Examples

Some examples of treatment that could be gender discrimination include:

Now not being hired, or being given a lower-paying function because of your gender identity or sexual orientation (for instance, whilst an organisation refuses to lease girls, or simplest hires girls for sure jobs).
Being held to distinctive or higher requirements, or being evaluated extra harshly, because of your gender identity, or because you don’t act or present your self in a manner that conforms to conventional thoughts of femininity or masculinity.
As an instance, if a worker who identifies as a lady receives a poor overall performance evaluation that criticizes her for being too “aggressive” (whilst men who behave the identical way are praised for displaying “leadership”), or if she wears her hair quick and is advised she desires to be more “presentable,” she may be experiencing discrimination based totally on gender stereotypes, that’s a shape of gender discrimination.
Being paid much less than a person of a one-of-a-kind gender or sexual orientation who’s in addition or much less certified than you, or who has comparable (or fewer) process duties than you.
Being denied a merchandising, pay enhance, or education opportunity this is given to humans of every other gender identification or sexual orientation who’re equally or much less certified or eligible as you.
Being written up or disciplined for something that other personnel of a different gender do all the time however in no way get punished.
Being insulted, referred to as derogatory names or slurs because of your gender identification, or listening to hostile remarks approximately people of a certain gender identity or sexual orientation.
Being intentionally or time and again called by means of a name or known as a special gender which you don’t perceive with – such as when a transgender man is called by using his useless name, or called “leave out”.
Being difficulty to unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, or other verbal or bodily harassment of a sexual nature,
Being rejected for a activity, forced out on leave, or given fewer assignments due to the fact you’re pregnant.

^[7]Key legal guidelines

We have summarised beneath those key legislation:

^[8]The Equal Remuneration Act 1976: The Equal Remuneration Act 1976 (“technology”) is aimed to save you gender-based totally discrimination in the administrative center. generation prescribes that males and females must be paid same wages for the equal (or comparable) paintings, and also that no such discrimination be made even as recruiting for the same (or comparable) work both, until employment of girls in that category of work is against the law under relevant regulation . Despite the fact that employees can’t claim compensation beneath the era, they could declare the quantity of wages denied to them. Further, stringent motion awaits the enterprise for violation of both of these provisions – he may be punished with fine and/or imprisonment, with annoyed punishment for repetition.
The Maternity Benefit Act 1961: The Maternity Benefit Act 1961 (“MB Act”) pursuits to offer paid maternity leave to women employees and associated components. The MB Act prohibits termination of employment of pregnant girl employee and mandates maternity benefit to such ladies. Further, there will be no deduction from her wages if she is not able to carry out certain strenuous tasks at some stage in the direction of her employment. The corporation will be susceptible to be punished with imprisonment or satisfactory underneath section 21 of the MB Act, for contravention of the above provisions. The MB Act was lately amended inside the year 2017 to offer for extended maternity gain to pregnant women personnel and additionally to offer maternity benefit to adoptive and commissioning girls employees.
The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016: The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act 2016 (“RPD Act”) is a totally revolutionary legislation, establishing in unambiguous phrases that there will be no discrimination in government employment towards men and women with disabilities. The RPD Act includes personal corporations inside the definition of ‘established order’ in section 2(i), and there’s an argument to be made that the ‘non-discrimination for merchandising’ precept embodied in section 20(3) can also apply to private entities too. Consequently, each established order is required to formulate an ‘same possibility policy’, and every authority’s established order has to hire a Complaint Redressal Officer as properly. The agency might be punished satisfactorily for contravention of the mandate of this RPD Act.
^[9]The Sexual Harassment of ladies at workplace (Prevention, Prohibition And Redressal) Act 2013: Sexual harassment is the maximum egregious shape of discrimination towards women. In popularity of this, The Sexual Harassment of ladies at place of job (Prevention, Prohibition And Redressal) Act 2013 (“PoSH Act”) empowers the internal complaints Committee to propose a compensatory sum to be deducted from the wages of the culprit and supplied to the victim. PoSH Act is absolutely relevant to private region organizations with the aid of virtue of segment 2(o)(ii), and is currently the only regulation in India entitling a victim of discrimination in the workplace to avail of compensation, even if such discrimination does not occur at the fingers of the enterprise himself. Offences punishable underneath the luxury Act also can be prosecuted beneath section 354 of the Indian Penal Code 1860 for criminal action against the wrongdoer.
The Constitution of India
- Article 14 guarantees ‘equality before regulation’.
- Article 15 prohibits discrimination on numerous grounds, as aforementioned.
- But, those protections can be employed best while discrimination is made through the kingdom or authorities of our bodies – consisting of nations and vital Governments.
- In case of discrimination on any grounds mentioned in Article 15, a writ may be filed to the worried excessive courtroom or ultimate court of India.
People with Disabilities (PwD) [Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation] Act, 1995:
- Safeguards rights of otherwise abled folks in India, at the administrative center and in any other case.
- 6% of seats in all authorities establishments are reserved for in another way abled people.
- Section 24A guarantees no discrimination in employment.
- Section 24C offers for prohibition of discrimination in promotion due to disabilities.
- Segment 24D specializes in equal opportunity regulations.
- Phase 24F prohibits elimination or discount of any rank on obtaining or having a disability.
The Wages Code 2019:
- Prohibits discrimination in matters of wages and recruitment of employees.
- Prohibited from reduction in wages because of gender.
- Consolidates the provisions of 4 other statutes which have been repealed, specifically: minimum Wages Act, price of Wages Act, identical Remuneration Act, and charge of Bonus Act.
- The reason for this Code is to offer ‘one roof’ to important provisions of the repealed statutes aforementioned. this will come into effect from 1 Oct 2022.
Industrial Disputes Act (IDA):
Prohibits commission of unfair labour practices – this consists of discrimination at place of business.
A list of such practices are indexed beneath the fifth agenda of the Act.
This includes discriminating against people for attesting in opposition to a corporation or being a member of a trade union.
Pay Disparity: Wages Code: The Wages Code 2019 has tried to eradicate pay disparity at the workplace. the key elements of the Code are as follows:
Eradication of discrimination in wages primarily based on gender for equal work or paintings of comparable nature, which consolidates the idea cited in the same Remuneration Act.
The Code is applicable to all sectors, i.e., organized and unorganized region personnel.
Code introduces the concept of ‘ground wages’, if you want to be a rate set by using the valuable government after accounting the minimal dwelling requirements of workers throughout regions.^[10]
The state government can even set the floor charge for his or her respective regions which can not be decreased from the national fee.
Code applicable to all personnel without any wage restriction.

^[11]Employers Responsibility

All employers in India have the responsibility to comply with the identical Remuneration Act of 1976 at the same time as hiring and keeping employees. some of the key obligations of employers are:

Recruitment: all through the recruitment method, employers need to not make any discrimination towards women for the identical paintings or work of a similar nature. Also, with respect to promotion, training and transfers, employers can not discriminate among ladies and men employees.
Equal Wages: All employers are required to pay same wages to women and men employees for acting the same paintings or paintings of a comparable nature. In addition, to comply with the regulation, the organisation can’t reduce the charge of wages of any worker.

However, primarily based on suited criteria and task classifications, employers pays exceptional salaries to the employees primarily based on factors like experience, overall performance, etc.

Maintenance of register: All employers are required to maintain a sign in and files containing the details of all personnel in the agency. Failure to hold a sign up or right files may want to result in simple imprisonment of upto one month or a first-rate of Rs. 10 thousand or each.

^[12]Employee Rights against Discrimination

Below the identical Remuneration Act of 1976, employees have the following rights towards discrimination:

The proper to bitch approximately agency’s contravention of any provision of the Employee Remuneration Act;
Right to file claims springing up out of non-price of wages at identical fees to women and men employees for the identical paintings.
Right to appeal towards an order of the Authority in respect of a claim or complaint within thirty days of such order.

^[13]Key Judgments

Inside the State of Punjab & Ors. vs. Jagjit Singh & Ors., the preferred courtroom ruled that personnel engaged within the identical work can not be paid less than any other co-worker who performs the identical or comparable nature of responsibilities and disparities. This Act of disparity in pay changed into seen as ‘oppressive, suppressive and coercive.’ thus, the principle of same pay for same paintings constitutes a clean and unambiguous property and is vested in each worker, whether or not working on a permanent or temporary basis.
The courtroom again sided with identical pay for the same paintings in Nakara vs. Union of India. The court docket used the unenforceable part of the Indian charter, i.e., component IV – Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSP). The court mentioned Article 38 and stated that the state has to attempt to take away the imbalances and disparities in pay popularity.

^[14]Conclusion

It is certain to the nation that even as there isn’t a popular regulation to address discrimination within the place of job and compensate victims, the assessments, balances, and consequences mentioned within the aforementioned statutes do provide corporations a real incentive to treat all employees similarly.

An anti-discrimination coverage that outlines the company’s dedication to equality and specifies a technique for handling any lawsuits to the contrary is recommended for all corporations. An enterprise is usually recommended to consist of discrimination as a floor for a breach of the employment agreements.

The problem has gotten worse because the legislature has been unable to take decisive action to eliminate discrimination within the place of work. The premise for discrimination inside the workplace continues to be severely compromised, and ladies’ rights and the benefits of scheduled and backward castes are not noted. The judiciary needs to keep advancing the case for substantive equality within the absence of strong administrative measures.^[15]