There are certain situations when preferential treatment is given to persons with particular characteristics who are in a disadvantaged position. This is usually done to correct inequality existing in practice. Preferential treatment in these situations will not be considered to be discriminatory.
Special measures can be used to help or encourage certain groups of people who, due to historic, economic or other reasons, are disadvantaged in access to work, education, training, etc. Such preferential treatment is aimed at correcting inequality that exists in practice.
Special measures include in particular:
- incentive measures that confer special benefits or introduce special incentives for disadvantaged persons in a particular field (such as employment or accommodation),
- positive measures which, subject to the same fulfilment of prescribed criteria and conditions, favour persons with particular personal circumstances (“positive discrimination”).
Employers can take positive action to help people or specific groups if they are disadvantaged in some way in relation to work, or they have particular needs which are different from other people not belonging to that group.
example A university can take some initiative to stimulate women to apply more for certain subjects, such as technology, where women are often under-represented. A large company may also conduct a special employment programme aimed at hiring more employees from the Roma community.
Requirements for application
To apply the exception of special measures. They need to pursue the legitimate aim of eliminating a disadvantage suffered by persons with a particular personal circumstance, based on an analysis of the existence of a disadvantage.
The application of special measures must be regularly reviewed. If the objective of their implementation is achieved, they must be abolished.