Positive discrimination

[Guest2]

Whilst in Ireland (Dublin) we were having 'a few' beers and a nice barmaid brough one of our blind friend a free pint of Guiness.
Naturally we all happy about this, but also slightly jealous. A couple guys wanted to borrow his cane to go to the toilet past the bar

This got me thinking, is this not favouring the disabled and it's positive discrimination?

Does anyone know the law if this sort of behaviour is allowed, say in a workplace? I always assumed disalbed should be treated equally and likewise non-disabled should be treated equally. Is seems not...

• Normally the Equality Act works both ways. For example it is unlawful to discriminate against a woman in favour of a man, or against a man in favour of a woman.
• However there is an exception for disability.The Equality Act does not make it unlawful to discriminate against a non-disabled person in favour of a disabled one.

Does this mean that disabled / others with 'protected characteristics' can be treated favourably? The pretty barmaid clearly had brushed up on her Equality Act 2010 (which does not apply in Northern Ireland it seems)

 

[Guest2]

Life's far too short to give a toss about stuff like this.

Some peoples jobs it is to give a toss about this. e.g my gf is working in employment law.

 

[Guest2]

There are two ways to look at this - equality should mean we’re all equal whether male, female, black, white, disabled or not. The other side is that’s being disabled is ****. I wouldn’t like to be blind. A free pint makes everyone happier

Oh yeh and 100% agree, it was a very nice thing to do under those circumstances. That being said, it got me thinking