Fair Employment and Treatment (Northern Ireland) Order
The Fair Employment and Treatment ( Northern Ireland ) Order 1998 (FETO) (a) makes it unlawful to discriminate against someone on the ground of religious belief or political opinion. This includes a person's supposed religious belief or political opinion and the absence of any, or any particular, religious belief or political opinion.
The Order defines three types of unlawful discrimination:
- Direct discrimination is where a person on grounds of religious belief or political opinion is treated less favourably than others are, or would be, treated in the same or similar circumstances.
- Indirect discrimination may occur where a provision, criterion or practice, although applied equally to all, would put persons of a particular religion or belief at a particular disadvantage compared with other persons unless that provision, criterion or practice is objectively justified by a legitimate aim.
- Victimisation means treating someone less favourably than others because they have, for example, complained of alleged discrimination or have assisted someone else to do so.
The Fair Employment and Treatment ( Northern Ireland ) Order 1998 (a) was amended by the Fair Employment and Treatment Order (Amendment) Regulations ( Northern Ireland ) 2003 which came into operation on 10 December 2003. The regulations implement the requirements of the EU Employment Framework Directive 2000/78/EC which requires Member States to introduce laws to prohibit discrimination on several grounds including religion or belief.
