Equal treatment in employment means lack of discrimination in any manner, direct or indirect, for any reason. Any action consisting in encouraging another person to infringe the principle of equal treatment in employment or ordering a breach of that principle also constitutes discrimination.

Direct discrimination exists when an employee, for one or more reasons, is, has been or could be treated less favourably than other employees in a comparable situation, e.g. someone is treated less favourably because they are a woman or a person with a disability.

Indirect discrimination exists where, as a result of an apparently neutral provision, criterion applied or action taken, there is or could be a disproportionate disadvantage or a particular disadvantage to all or a significant number of employees belonging to a group distinguished on one or more grounds, unless the provision, criterion or action is objectively justified in view of the legitimate aim to be achieved and the means of achieving that aim are appropriate and necessary. Thus, in the case of indirect discrimination, there is no immediately discriminatory situation because the provision/criterion/action is neutral. Discrimination only appears as a result of this provision/criterion/action. E.g. the employer in question does not employ part-time employees. It may even appear to be beneficial for employees. In practice, however, it can work to the disadvantage of women in particular, as it is usually women who bear the burden of caring for children or elderly family members and for them part-time employment can be advantageous as it enables them to provide care and find balance between their professional and family life.

Harassment occurs when unwanted conduct takes place with the purpose or effect of violating the dignity of an employee and of creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment against that person. Harassment can therefore be considered to be any taunts relating to a characteristic of an employee that causes the person to feel humiliated, intimidated, etc., e.g. in the case of a person with a disability, it may be an impolite questioning about the impact of the disability on this person’s private life.

Sexual harassment is unwanted conduct of a sexual nature or relating to the sex of an employee, the purpose or effect of which is to violate the dignity of the employee, in particular to create an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or derogatory atmosphere towards the employee. This behaviour can consist of physical, verbal or non-verbal elements, e.g. telling sexually explicit jokes or making bawdy allusions can be considered sexual harassment.

An employee’s submission to harassment or sexual harassment, as well as the employee’s taking action to resist the harassment or sexual harassment, may not result in any negative consequences for the employee.