Employment discrimination complaints rise 25%

THE number of complaints to the Equality Tribunal for employment discrimination rose by a quarter to 255 in the first nine months of the year.

According to figures published by the tribunal yesterday, one-third of those cases referred to it under the Employment Equality Act so far this year have been on the grounds of gender.

The number of job discrimination claims on the grounds of race more than doubled, rising to 51 in the nine-month period compared with 43 for all of last year. There were also increases in employment cases on grounds of sexual orientation (from one to four) and family status cases jumped from three to eight.