But What About Political Discrimination?

Rashad Brathwaite

But what does the bill contemplate about cases of political victimization or discrimination? According to section thirty-eight of the proposed legislation, (Quote) “discrimination on the basis of political opinion shall not be unlawful unless if where the political opinion is the basis on which a person may be employed in, or appointed to, a particular office.”  (Unquote) This means that if a job is political in its nature, there is no discrimination if the post is filled due to political affiliation.  Consultant Rashad Brathwaite responded to this concern, specifically as it relates to the awarding of contracts, scholarships, land and the like.

Rashad Brathwaite, Consultant/Legal Drafts Person

“One of the important functions of the Commission is the power to firstly engage in research and secondly, the power of the Commission under the Public Sector Equality Duty to bring precedence as against government authorities which would address questions such as this. And this provides a greater tool to address the very concerns of the senator. And so this now gives us tools when to think about the ways in which this might be indirectly discriminatory and for the Commission to have a power of enforcement. In addition…and we can have further conversations about the necessity of strengthening the work of the Auditor General, etc. As to the question of political discrimination, now what we have here is a draft and the language formulation…so in my version, I have made an amendment. What this law does, the exception provides that where a person is a political campaign manager, for example, that is selecting that person on the basis of political opinion is part of the inherent requirements of the job. This is a standard provision in relation to discrimination on the basis of political opinion. There are certain jobs that by their nature are political, however, when we are talking about the exercise of distribution of scholarship; that is not a political qualification and therefore cannot and does not fall under that provision. To be absolutely clear for the avoidance of any doubt, and there will be further drafts to the Bill, the policy position is that only in cases where political opinion is an inherent requirement of the job—that does not apply to appointments to board, that does not apply to the distribution of scholarships, that does not apply in the awarding of contracts.”