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Avoiding Discriminatory Job Adverts - New Guidance Published

on Friday, 11 March 2016.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has published new best practice guidance on avoiding unlawful discrimination in advertisements.

The Equality Act 2010 (the Act) applies to anyone who creates and places an advert (advertisers) and those who publish it in print, online, or in local shops (publishers).

If a discriminatory advert is published, both the advertiser and the publisher may be liable, as well as online publishing platforms if they fail to remove any discriminatory adverts once they are made aware of them.

In the past year, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (the Commission) has received more than a hundred complaints that adverts were discriminatory, including sex, age, race, sexual orientation and disability discrimination. As a result, the Commission has produced best practice guidance which may be useful for employers and agencies when advertising jobs.

The guidance provides a helpful summary of the Act and how it applies to job adverts. It includes information about the circumstances in which adverts can be discriminatory, and the exemptions on which advertisers can rely under the Act. The guidance provides a range of examples, dealing with different types of discrimination when advertising employment opportunities, and also provides a good practice checklist.


For more information, please contact Helen Hughes in our Employment Law team on 020 7665 0816.