Is the employment equality act casting its net too widely?

The vexing question of whether caste is protected by the Equality Act has now been confirmed by the Employment Appeal Tribunal. The answer it appears is sometimes. In Chandhok v Tirkey, the EAT held that caste may be protected under the discrimination legislation but only where the caste is part of a protected characteristic, usually ethnic origin.

Ms Tirkey was a migrant worker from India employed by Mr and Mrs Chandhok as a nanny. She alleged that she had been mistreated by them, in part, because she was from a lower caste. The respondents to the claim Mr and Mrs Chandhok argued that this aspect of her claim should be struck out because caste was not a protected characteristic under the discrimination legislation. This includes characteristics such as sex, race, age, disability, sexual orientation and religious belief.

The EAT disagreed, commenting that whilst caste is not a freestanding protected characteristic, elements of caste identity may form part of an individual’s ethnic origin particularly where caste is determined by descent or contains “an identifiable ethnic identity”. Therefore it would appear that caste discrimination may be added to the list of established characteristics.

Some commentators have expressed the view that allowing caste to be covered by the discrimination legislation could open up further discussions regarding class discrimination. It remains to be seen how this case may be interpreted by other tribunals because most cases are decided upon their own specific facts.