What is Age Discrimination?
Age Ground
If someone treats you less favourably because you are older or younger than someone else and it is without a good reason (‘objective justification’).
‘Age’ applies to people over 18 years of age, except for the provision of car insurance to licensed drivers under that age.
(Note: this ground does not cover alleged discrimination against children in schools.)
How do you know if you have experienced discrimination?
Discrimination is when someone treats you worse or ‘less favourably’ than another person is, has been, or would be treated, in a similar situation, because you fall under the ‘protected grounds’.
You can experience discrimination in four different ways:
- directly
- indirectly
- by imputation
- by association
Who can you complain to?
Complaints under the Employment Equality Acts and the Equal Status Acts are made to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC).
The WRC deals with claims related to employment and to services or goods, including education, housing, membership clubs and certain cases relating to pubs.
Note that there are very strict timeframes to complain.
Watch our video to see some examples of discrimination, learn about your rights and find out how to make a complaint.
Watch our video with audio description