Main principles and definitions

However, protection against victimisation exists in the framework of the Labour Law, the Law on Consumer Protection, the Law on the support to unemployed persons and job seekersthe Law on Social Securityand the Law on prohibition of discrimination of natural persons who are economic operators, the Education Lawand in connection with a complaint to the Ombudsman’ s Office. The law is silent on the issue of discrimination by association or on presumed grounds or characteristics; the wording of the anti-discrimination provisions in Latvian laws referring to a person’s (meaning the person who is invoking the provision) race, religious conviction etc. certainly would leave it easier to address discrimination based on assumed characteristics than that based on association. However, in the absence of the relevant case law testing these two issues, the only thing that can be said with certainty is that the law contains no express prohibitions.                                        

The grounds for discrimination are not defined either in the Labour Law or elsewhere and it is particularly feared that disability might be interpreted narrowly, using the technical meaning of this term, i.e. depending on formal recognition of a person’s diminished ability to work and excluding de facto and milder forms of disability. Age, disability and sexual orientation are expressly mentioned only in the Labour Law and  – with the exception of sexual orientation – in Law on Social Security.

The Labour Law, the Law on Social Security, the Law on prohibition of discrimination of natural persons who are economic operators, the Law on the support to unemployed persons and job seekersand the Law on Consumer Protection are also the laws dealing with exceptions and they only provide for a general genuine occupation requirement exception and the Law on Social Security specifies that harassment cannot be thus justified; there is no case law yet. Additionally the Labour Law provides for an exemption for employment by religious organisations which on its face is broader than the one provided for by the Directive. The Labour Law also sets out the obligation of the employer to provide reasonable accommodation for disabled people.

There are no rules, nor known plans of adopting such, addressing the issue of multiple discrimination.