Instruction to discriminate occurs in situations where one person is instructing another person to discriminate against a third person.
Telling someone or making someone discriminate against another person because of his or her racial or ethnic origin, disability, religion or belief, sexual orientation, age, gender or other characteristics is prohibited.
example The head of a company forbids the personnel recruitment department from hiring Roma or women over 50, or requires the hiring of only young women. A recruitment agency refuses work to a lesbian or a gay person, because the company using their services provided such an instruction.
The prohibition is not violated, if the instruction, albeit producing negative effects, is not linked with discrimination.
example If the boss of a company instructs the head of a unit to deny a promotion to a certain employee, this is not an instruction to discriminate, if the refusal to promote is based on objective work-related considerations.
The Slovakian law distinguishes between “instruction to discriminate” and “incitement to discriminate”. A deed qualifies for an instruction to discriminate when a person in a superior position abuses another person in a subordinate position in order to discriminate against a third person. Incitement to discriminate is defined as „persuading, affirming or inciting a person to discriminate against a third person“.