The Act covers Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The National Disability Council established by the Act will primarily advise the Government in relation to disability. It has limited powers of enforcement so that the role of Trade Unions in securing compliance by employers with the new Act will be crucial. This guide does not deal with the non employment provisions of the Act relating to education, the provision of goods and services and so on. It is unlawful for an employer to treat an employee less favourably because the employee has brought a claim under the Act, given evidence or information in connection with a claim under the Act, or otherwise done anything under the Act or alleged that a person has contravened the Act or because the employer believes or suspects the employee has done or intends to do any of these things.
Victimisation is a separate act of discrimination.
The employment sections of the Act do not apply to employers with less than 20 employees. This means that a disabled person who is treated less favourably because of a requirement or condition of an employer which disproportionately affects disabled people may be protected. So, for example, a requirement or condition that a machine operative have a minimum level of numeracy or literacy may be discriminatory against a disabled person with learning difficulties. Likewise a redundancy selection policy which uses absence rates as a criteria may be discriminatory against disabled persons. An employer who discriminates against a disabled person has a defence if he can establish that the discriminatory treatment is justified.