Discrimination can be both positive and negative. This may come as a surprise, as it’s usually harmful discrimination we hear about. Let’s look at the two types of discrimination and where you might see them.

Negative Discrimination

Negative discrimination means putting a person at a disadvantage due to their protected characteristics. For example, this could mean overlooking a person for promotion because of their religion, despite being the most qualified employee for the role.

Positive Discrimination

Positive discrimination means favouring an individual because of their protected characteristics, despite that person being less capable or less qualified than another. For example, if a person is awarded a promotion due to being disabled, even though another person without any protected characteristics was more qualified for the position, this could be seen as positive discrimination.

The goal of positive discrimination is usually to reduce inequality in the workplace. This could include increasing the number of employees from minority backgrounds within the business. However, this does not necessarily mean that positive discrimination is the right thing to do or that it is legally justifiable.

Protected Characteristics – Explained

When we’re talking about discrimination, whether that be positive or negative discrimination, the term ‘protected characteristics’ will regularly crop up. But what are the protected characteristics, and what does it mean to possess one of these characteristics?

The Equality Act 2010 sets out the protected characteristics against which it is illegal to discriminate. If a person holds one of these characteristics, it is unlawful to discriminate against that person due to their protected characteristic.

The protected characteristics that are set out in the Equality Act are as follows:

• Age
• Disability
• Gender reassignment
• Marriage or civil partnership
• Pregnancy and maternity
• Race
• Religion or belief
• Sex
• Sexual orientation

Examples Of Positive Discrimination

There are many different ways in which positive discrimination can take within the workplace. Let’s take a look at a few examples to illustrate this.

1. Two people are applying for the same job role. One of the applicants is from an ethnic minority and is underqualified for the position. However, the hiring manager decides to hire the applicant to increase the company’s diversity, turning down the more qualified applicant. This could be classed as positive discrimination as the hiring manager has chosen the applicant from an ethnic minority rather than the applicant who was best qualified for the role.
2. A business is forced to make redundancies due to a reduction in profits. An employee with a disability is underperforming, but the company decides to make a better-performing employee redundant to maintain their record for employing those with disabilities. This could be classed as positive discrimination as redundancies were made due to protected characteristics rather than based on individual performance.
3. There is an opportunity for promotion within the business, and two employees decide to apply – one male and one female. The female employee is better qualified and has more experience than the male. However, as all the existing managers are female, the hiring manager decides to promote the male to increase the team’s diversity. This could be seen as positive discrimination, as the hiring manager has chosen the employee based on their gender rather than their skill set.

What Are The Effects Of Positive Discrimination In The Workplace?

Whilst positive discrimination may seem like the answer to increasing diversity and equality in the workplace, some negative consequences may occur.

The most significant impact of positive discrimination in the workplace is that it may affect morale and employee satisfaction. If your existing employees start to think that decisions when it comes to hiring and promotion are being made based on protected characteristics rather than skills, experience and performance, you may find that they become dissatisfied with their job and morale suffers as a result. They could even lodge a claim at an employment tribunal for discrimination if they are overlooked for promotion.

Begin to make hiring decisions based on protected characteristics and ignore skills and experience. You might also find that the collective skills and expertise held by the team drop as a result. Whilst your team’s diversity and equality may increase, it will hurt performance if you don’t consider qualifications and experience in your hiring decisions, and your operations may suffer as a result.

To avoid positive discrimination in the workplace, it’s essential to ensure that you make decisions based on pre-determined criteria rather than the protected characteristics that the applicant holds.

Is Positive Discrimination Legal In The UK?

It can be tempting to utilise positive discrimination to increase diversity in your workforce and give more significant opportunities to those with protected characteristics. But is positive discrimination legal in the UK, and is it something you should use?

In the UK, treating a person with protected characteristics more favourably than someone who is better qualified or experienced and doesn’t have a protected characteristic is illegal. Although you may think that you are discriminating for a positive reason, it is still discrimination and is therefore unlawful..

What Is The Difference Between Positive Discrimination And Positive Action?

At first glance, you may think that positive action and positive discrimination are the same things. After all, both aim to increase diversity by giving opportunities to those who might otherwise be overlooked. However, you need to be aware of some important differences between positive discrimination and positive action.

Positive discrimination is treating people with protected characteristics more favourably than people in other groups, even if they are less qualified or experienced. On the other hand, positive action involves taking steps to increase representation without using preferential treatment.

A key example of positive action is organisations providing funding and support for women interested in Science, Technology, Engineering and math (STEM). STEM jobs are typically male-dominated; however, by providing targeted initiatives aimed at women (who tend to be underrepresented), organisations can make positive steps towards increasing diversity in their workforce.

It’s important to note that positive action could become discrimination if the company decides to employ a less qualified female in the STEM role to increase diversity rather than a more qualified male. However, if a male and female both applied for the same role and were equally qualified and experienced, the company would be allowed to choose to employ the female over the male to increase diversity in the workforce under positive action.

Disability exclusion has stemmed from the belief that having a disability makes you ‘less than.’ In recent years, the disabled community has also been silenced by the popularised positivity movement that believes ‘the only disability is a bad attitude.’ Although on a surface level, this statement sounds encouraging, both attitudes have the underlying message that it is up to the disabled community to change if they want to be part of society.

Disability activist Stella Young explained brilliantly the barriers that people with disability face are societal and that no amount of positivity will be able to break these barriers down.

“You know, no amount of smiling at a flight of stairs has ever made it turn into a ramp. Never. Smiling at a television screen isn’t going to make closed captions appear for people who are deaf. No amount of standing in the middle of a bookshop and radiating a positive attitude is going to turn all those books into Braille,” said Stella.

To become an all-inclusive and accessible society, we need to change how we view disability and collaborate with the disabled community to break down barriers.

The social model vs the medical

So, how do we change our lens on disability? Two models view disability in vastly different ways: social and medical.

The medical model views disability as a consequence of a health condition, disease or accident that disrupts function. The model focuses on preventing or curing the illness. Here, disability is something ‘wrong’ that needs fixing to make a person more ‘normal’.

The social model of disability completely flips this perspective. It sees disability as the attitudinal, physical, systemic, communication, and technological barriers created by society. It does not deny the impact of an individual’s impairment, but it does seek to put the responsibility on the community to accommodate people living with disability, rather than expecting the individual to adapt to society.

Removing barriers in society

The social model of disability states that there are six different types of barriers people with disability face. Barrier removal requires expertise, collaboration, advocacy and legal backing. Everyone can play a part in educating themselves about these barriers and learn how to create new pathways to ensure our society is as accessible and inclusive as possible.

Attitudinal barriers

Attitudinal barriers are created by individuals who can only see the impairment, not the person with a disability. At its worst, believing in the stigma attached to disability can result in bullying, isolation and even violence.

On the flip side, people can be incredibly condescending, using people with disability as ‘inspirational porn.’ Although this belief has no malicious intent, people with disability do not exist to make others feel good. Being condescending can cause just as much damage as being purposefully hurtful.

Stella Young spoke about the effects different attitudes have on the disabled community in her 2014 TED Talk, “I’m not your inspiration, thank you very much.”

“I want to live in a world where we don’t have such low expectations of disabled people that we are congratulated for getting out of bed and remembering our own names in the morning. I want to live in a world where we value genuine achievement for disabled people,” said Stella.

This barrier is the underlying issue of all the other barriers. People may be unaware of their negative attitudes, so it is important to make a conscious effort to unlearn these stereotypes. Everyone is deserving of the same respect and rights no matter their disability.

Physical barriers

Physical barriers refer to inaccessible environments due to how they were designed.

Examples include buildings with no wheelchair access, inadequate lighting that creates poor visibility for people with low vision, and sidewalks that are too narrow for walking aids or doorknobs that are difficult to grasp for people with arthritis.

There is already a lot of change in this space, like introducing wheelchair-accessible beach mats and low sensory quiet hours at grocery stores. However, there is always more to be done. Architects, designers, builders, and town planners must put accessibility first to ensure everyone can enjoy society, rather than a select few.

Systemic barriers

Systemic barriers are the laws, policies, practices, or strategies designed by the government or organisations that discriminate against people with disabilities.

The systemic barriers often stop people from living their day-to-day life. Someone in a wheelchair may struggle to get places if their local train station does not have a ramp, or someone with sensory processing issues may struggle to complete work if they are denied a reasonable adjustment of using noise-cancelling headphones. Peter, on the autism spectrum, has found his productivity at work has increased since using noise-cancelling headphones.

Unfortunately, discriminatory laws and policies are often only changed after immense pressure from advocacy groups.

Alastair McEwin AM is the Commissioner for the disability royal commission and firmly believes that removing systemic barriers is key to achieving inclusion.

“My drive for the work I do is, quite simply, to ensure that in the future, no disabled person has to experience discrimination or barriers to mainstream society in the same way I have experienced discrimination and barriers as a deaf person,” said Alastair.

Communication barriers

Communication barriers affect people with disabilities that impact their hearing, speaking, reading, writing, or understanding. Communication is intertwined with everything we do. We need communication to work, build relationships and seek support.

Just because someone does not communicate the same way you do does not mean they should be left out of the conversation. Breaking down communication barriers can be very simple. Speech pathologist Dr Joanne Steel clearly suggested ways to improve communication.

“Regardless of their speech abilities or cognitive skills, everyone has the right to communicate. So treat them the same as you would any other person, talk directly to them, and ask them questions,” said Joanne.

Other ways to improve communication include hiring an Auslan interpreter at speaking events, including braille or electronic versions of menus at restaurants, and writing important information in simple, plain English.

Technological and digital barriers

Technology has many benefits for people with disability. It has helped to break down some of the barriers on this list. Thanks to technology, people with disability have been able to access education, work remotely and improve communication and community connection. However, there are still some significant accessibility barriers that come with technology.

Breaking down barriers as an employer

Employers can break down barriers for people with disability in many different ways. One of the most impactful ways is to hire someone with a disability. Not only does employing someone with a disability help the person become a contributing member of society, but it can also have significant benefits for the business.

At EPIC Assist, we understand it can be hard to know where to start when hiring someone with a disability for the first time. We work closely with employers to understand their needs and find the right person for the job. We also offer guidance and can help organise workplace adjustments and provide ongoing support after the employee is on the job.

Contact EPIC Assist today if you want to help break down barriers for people with disability and make diverse and inclusive hiring a priority.