Difference between Disparate Treatment and Disparate Impact

Many people get confused while differentiating disparate treatment and disparate impact, which are two legal terms or doctrines of employment, considering them as the same. Sometimes it becomes challenging even for lawyers to differentiate these two terms because there are many similarities in disparate treatment and disparate impact and it makes it difficult to understand these terms separately. However, there are a few differences between disparate treatment and disparate impact that distinguish these terms from each other. Disparate treatment is basically a biased treatment with the employees or a particular group of employees on the basis of discrimination. On the other hand, the disparate impact is an unjust treatment of the boss, manager or owner of an organisation with a particular employee or a group of employees. Disparate treatment requires a solid proof of discrimination while in case of disparate impact only one single practice that caused injustice is enough. Keep reading to learn more about the disparate treatment and disparate impact.

Instructions

  • 1

    Disparate Treatment:

    Disparate treatment which is also known in the legal circles as differential treatment is all about the discriminatory behaviour with employees. It is a doctrine relating to the employment behaviour in which an employee claims that he has been treated in a biased or discriminatory manner by the manager, boss or owner of the organisation. However, in case of disparate treatment, the victim needs to prove his claim that he has been treated in a biased and discriminated manner. The victim is required to prove his claim with solid proof that could prove him right in his or her claim. However, it the victim fails to prove that he has been treated in a discriminatory manner then the claim gets dismissed. So, disparate of differential treatment requires solid proof of discrimination that has caused harm to a particular employee or a group of employees.

    Image courtesy: 4.bp.blogspot.com

  • 2

    Disparate Impact:

    Disparate Impact is basically a behaviour in which an employee or a group of employees gets badly affected by the policies or plans of the employer and usually the employer creates such situation that causes harm or injustice to a particular employee or employees. Injustice is the basic element of disparate impact in which the qualification, ability or talent of an employee is ignored on the basis of age, sect, sex or race. In case of disparate impact, people claim that they have been treated in a completely odd and disapproving manner. In order to prove their claim of disparate impact, the employees only need to reveal any incident in which they have been treated in a biased or unjust way and someone else got preference that he did not deserve.

    Image courtesy: blog.roymatheson.com

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


eight − 5 =