Unlawful discrimination is any action, behavior or decision that are made on some discriminatory basis that include race, gender, religion, pregnancy, age and / or disability and is against the constitution to act or base decisions on such grounds. For example, it is unlawful for an employer to discriminate on an employee despite the employee’s condition or contract of employment. It is also unlawful to refuse to hire an employee based on their race, sex, religion, age, marital status, family responsibility, pregnancy, political opinion or religious affiliation (Unlawful workplace discrimination, 2010). In the workplace, an employer can use their power to dismiss an employee, injure there, alter their employment position, discriminate an employee due to any of the factors mentioned above or refuse to employee a prospective employee due to the employer’s discrimination against the employee. However, not all forms of different treatments amount to discrimination as sometimes the management has to assess employees and such treatments may occur.
When talking to a neighbor who had worked in a private company in the country, she told me how she was dismissed from her work because she was pregnant. Alice had worked for this private firm for five years since her university graduation. After her graduation in 2007, she joined the company as part of the internship but later there was an opening and she was employed. After four years in her new job, she got married and after a year in marriage, she got pregnant. Since it was her first pregnancy, she had quite a hard time and most of the time she would not be able to do her work in the same capacity as before, when she was a spinster. That marked the beginning of her misfortunes. In her third month of pregnancy, she became ill and she had to take a sick leave. Upon her return, she was summoned by the managing director and she was told that the company policy does not allow women to become pregnant before they complete a six year term from the day of their first employment in the business.
Alice was working as a human resource assistant manager in the firm that dealt with electronic and software production in Australia. The new policy introduced to her by her employer was shocking. She was clearly told that the company does not keep employees who fail to fulfill that condition. As a result, she was demoted from the human resource assistant manager to a receptionist position. She was frustrated and felt dejected, but her fellow employees told her that indeed she was lucky not to be fired. Two weeks after her demotion, she received a letter that stated her employment contract had been terminated due to a breach of contract. In other words, she was dismissed because she was pregnant.
Alice was not the first victim of such discrimination from her boss. Women were not allowed to get pregnant in that firm because their maternity leave was perceived as an additional cost to the business as they had to hire a new employee. Women were dismissed in their fifth month of pregnancy in order to create room for their replacements. Alice like many other women before her lost her job because she was pregnant. Alice’s case presents a scenario that the unlawful discrimination objects. Her dismissal is a cruel form of discrimination against pregnant women.
Works Cited
"Unlawful workplace discrimination.” Home - Fair Work Ombudsman. N.p., 2010. Web. 6 Apr. 2014. <http://www.fairwork.gov.au/Resources/fact-sheets/workplace-rights/Pages/unlawful-workplace-discrimination-fact-sheet>
