Analysis of Indirect and Associative Discrimination in Employment From the European Union Law Perspective

The paper deals with the issues of indirect and associative discrimination in the European Union law, with focus on the case law of the European Court of Justice, and the importance of the case law of this court for the sphere of employment. While prohibition of indirect discrimination was introduced in the European Union law a couple of decades ago, associative discrimination at the European Union level is, so far, addressed only by the European Court of Justice. In this regard, the concept of associative discrimination is still, to some extent, vague and subject to debate, while the dilemmas and risks in relation to this concept exponentially grow when reflected upon through lenses of indirect discrimination. The goal of the paper is to point out the importance, but also the risks of recognizing indirect associative discrimination in employment, all in the context of taking one step further in achieving substantive equality in the world of work.