Latest news and blog » Equality (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2015 2016-03-08

The main changes relate to:

• retirement age and post-retirement contracts;
• permitted discrimination in religious, educational and medical institutions; and
• the addition of a further discriminatory ground in respect of the provision of living accommodation.

• An employer who offers a fixed term contract to someone who is over the compulsory retirement age is now required to objectively justify this to avoid a charge of age discrimination.
•  An employer is now required to objectively justify the fixing of different ages for the retirement of employees.

• Section 37 of the Employment Equality Act allowed certain exemptions to religious, educational and medical institutions whereby they could effectively discriminate against employees in order to protect the religious ethos of the institution. These exemptions have now been reduced in the case of publicly-funded educational and medical institutions.
  
   
• Section 6 of the Equal Status Act prohibits discrimination in the provision of accommodation. Section 14 of the 2015 Act amends this by adding a further discriminatory ground - the 'housing assistance ground' on which discrimination in the context is prohibited. This new ground covers those in receipt of rent supplement or any payment under the Social Welfare Acts.