Managers guide to interviewing

Avoiding discrimination

Anti-discrimination legislation applies throughout the recruitment process, including selection interviews.

Employers are legally accountable for any discriminatory conduct taken by their employees while on the job. This means that if a manager conducting recruitment interviews does or says anything that might be perceived as discriminatory, the employer may be obliged to compensate the victim if a successful complaint is later brought to an employment tribunal.

A job candidate who feels he or she has been subjected to discriminatory treatment throughout the recruitment process has three calendar months from the date of the alleged discrimination to make a claim with a tribunal.

Tribunals have no limit on the amount of compensation they can award in discrimination cases.

Legislation

Job applicants enjoy protection against discrimination because of:

• sex;
• transgender status (i.e. where a job applicant has had a sex change or is in the process of changing sex);
• pregnancy and maternity;
• marriage or civil partnership;
• race, colour, nationality, ethnic origins and national origins;
• religion or belief;
• sexual orientation;
• age; and
• disability.

Rejection for employment is also illegal if it is based on a candidate's previous or current trade union membership or, with limited circumstances, a 'spent' criminal record.

The general principle established in the United Kingdom's anti-discrimination legislation is that all job candidates must be treated equally, regardless of gender, ethnicity, or other factors. The framework of disability law is slightly different in that an employer may choose to treat a disabled candidate more favourably than other candidates if they so want (and in some circumstances, must treat a disabled candidate more favourably than other candidates).

Discrimination can be direct, in which an individual is targeted because he or she possesses a protected characteristic, because he or she associates with someone who possesses a