What are the legal protections against workplace discrimination for neogenders?

32 replies

Middlelanehogger · 11/08/2023 11:07

I understand that the EqA has a protected characteristic of gender reassignment.

As a layperson I assume this means you can't for example refuse to hire someone for being a (binary, vaguely attempting to pass) transwoman, at least not without finding a different justification to point to such as qualifications.

How far does that extend to various "neogenders", e.g., can you refuse to hire someone because they claim to be catgender or cloudgender or something? Can you explicitly write down in the hiring panel notes "applicant was weird and wore cat ears, no hire"? At some point surely employers are allowed to "discriminate" on the grounds of unprofessionalism and personality and I'm wondering if there is any case law / precedent / legislation that covers this case.

OP posts:

NicCageisnotNickCave · 11/08/2023 12:08

‘Dressed inappropriately for interview

’failed to adhere to workplace dress code standard’?

would something like that be acceptable?

PermanentTemporary · 11/08/2023 11:42

I would want to know that you were giving candidates a decent chance to showcase their relevant skills. If you hone in on everyone's weirdest aspect, you'd never hire anyone. It was really only a few years ago that any visible tattoo at all would have a lot of careers advisers insisting you'd never get a job. Now it's totally normal for employees to have a visible sleeve etc. By all means have a dress code at work and if the person appears wearing cat ears which contravenes the dress code, discuss that. Likewise if they're unable to get through an interview without asking if you've accepted Jesus as your personal saviour or whether you believe 9/11 was an inside job, you'd have a legit query on whether they can manage customer service. But somebody's weird belief that they wouldn't normally bring up - who cares?

Chersfrozenface · 11/08/2023 11:39

I believe "not a good fit for the team/ project/company" is widely used in rejection messages.

Original poster

Middlelanehogger · 11/08/2023 11:36

MagpiePi · 11/08/2023 11:23

I’m sure the panel would put ‘insufficient experience’ or something more neutral and it would be hard to prove that there was discrimination.

I have heard anecdotally that some hiring managers are automatically discarding any applications the announce pronouns.

I'm very interested in the "can you do this in the open" question though. Like if you laughed and said "of course we didn't hire her, she went on about being cloudgender, I can't put her in front of a client!" would that be grounds for any kind of action... Or do you have to be undercover about it?

Likewise with the pronouns thing - in some sense it's a more of a rejection on the grounds of political/subculture differences than "gender" so I'm curious.

OP posts:

ArabeIIaScott · 11/08/2023 11:31

MagpiePi · 11/08/2023 11:23

I’m sure the panel would put ‘insufficient experience’ or something more neutral and it would be hard to prove that there was discrimination.

I have heard anecdotally that some hiring managers are automatically discarding any applications the announce pronouns.

Most people prefer to keep political and personal faith beliefs separate from the workplace.

MagpiePi · 11/08/2023 11:23

I’m sure the panel would put ‘insufficient experience’ or something more neutral and it would be hard to prove that there was discrimination.

I have heard anecdotally that some hiring managers are automatically discarding any applications the announce pronouns.

Mummy08m · 11/08/2023 11:11

I think in practice, anyone wearing cat ears to an interview probably has other issues/downsides with their CV, interview answers, skills. They're unlikely to be all round competent in every other way, are they? I can't see this becoming a discrimination issue in any real life case.

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