Statement to the Employment and Equality Committee of Parliament on the Non-Discrimination Ombudsman's Report to Parliament 2022 (K 7/2022 vp) (TAS 270/2022)
The Ombudsman for Equality was heard by Parliament's Employment and Equality Committee on the Non-Discrimination Ombudsman's Report to Parliament 2022 on 2 July 2022. The Non-Discrimination Ombudsman also gave the committee a written statement, where they stressed the following points:
Partial reform of the Non-Discrimination Act
Improving the legal protection of discrimination victims
In their report to Parliament, the Ombudsman for Equality stresses the need to improve the legal protection of discrimination victims in the pending partial reform of the Non-Discrimination Act.
The Ombudsman also considers it important to improve the legal status of discrimination victims. In their report to Parliament, the Ombudsman for Equality discussed the position of victims of gender discrimination and the need to develop their legal protection.
The Ombudsman for Equality considers it important to also examine the sanctions regime and legal protection issues of the Equality Act and the Non-Discrimination Act in parallel instead of developing them separately.
Intersectional discrimination
Special attention should be paid to matters concerning intersectional discrimination, to which only the Non-Discrimination Act currently applies, even if gender, gender identity or gender expression were a factor of intersectional discrimination. This significantly restricts the Ombudsman for Equality's capabilities to monitor discrimination and promote equality. The Ombudsman for Equality thus considers it important that the Ombudsman for Equality should also have authority in cases of intersectional discrimination in which gender is a factor.
About the National Non-Discrimination and Equality Tribunal and compensations
The draft Government proposal for the Non-Discrimination Act proposes that the National Non-Discrimination and Equality Tribunal could order compensations to be paid in matters other than those relating to working life. The Ombudsman for Equality finds this proposal commendable as such, since tribunal procedure would lower the threshold for claiming compensation and eliminate the expense risk. This would improve the legal protection of discrimination victims. However, there are still issues relating to the matter that need to be investigated and assessed.
In their own report to Parliament, the Ombudsman for Equality proposed that the possibility of developing the Tribunal from a monitoring body into a low-threshold legal protection body should be examined. The Ombudsman for Equality has also considered it important that the right of individuals to institute proceedings with the Tribunal in matters relating to equality, and development of the right to bring action in a more collective direction be examined in this connection (K 1/2022 vp., pp. 33–37).
Even though it is not proposed that the National Non-Discrimination and Equality Tribunal be given authority to order compensation in discrimination matters relating to working life, it should be noted that they also often involve claims for compensation by discrimination victims for matters such as groundless termination of an employment contract, compensation for loss of income, pay for the period of notice or loss of the annual holiday bonus.
If the National Non-Discrimination and Equality Tribunal were granted the proposed authority to order the payment of compensations based on violations of the Non-Discrimination Act, it would be important to examine as soon as possible whether the Tribunal should also be given the authority to order the payment of compensations on the basis of violations of the Equality Act (K 1/2022 vp, pp. 28–29).
Mandating the Non-Discrimination Ombudsman to monitor discrimination relating to working life
The Non-Discrimination Ombudsman's Report proposes giving the Ombudsman the authority to handle matters relating to discrimination in working life and to bring these matters to the National Non-Discrimination and Equality Tribunal in the future. The grounds given for the proposal are improvement of the legal protection of discrimination victims. (K 7/2022 vp., p. 16.)
The Ombudsman for Equality has been in favour of giving the Non-Discrimination Ombudsman and the National Non-Discrimination and Equality Tribunal powers to also enforce the prohibitions of discrimination in working life and the obligations to promote non-discrimination.
It is important that the powers of authorities responsible for enforcing the Equality Act and the Non-discrimination Act would be as clear and similar as possible, so that the legal protection system would also be as clear as possible from the discrimination victim's perspective and so that the discrimination victims' access to justice would be realised irrespective of the grounds for discrimination. This would be important from the perspective of intersectional discrimination in particular.
10.06.2022
