The Ice Hockey Federation gave a punishment to the coach who intervened in racism, which was against the law according to the Equality Commissioner. In the handling of the case, indirect discrimination was also committed.
Lahti Pelicans’ junior player, his coach, who told about being the target of racism Juha Sokka and the Ice Hockey Association came to an agreement. It is stated in the press release of the Equality Commissionerthat the Jääkiekkoliitto was guilty of violating the Equality Act in handling the case.
Because of this, the Ice Hockey Association will pay 3,000 euros to the player who was targeted by racism and 3,000 euros to his coach. In addition, the Jääkiekkoliitto reimburses the costs incurred in handling the case, such as legal fees.
The junior player was racially insulted in the match played last year on November 6. When a Pelicans player told his coach that he had been the target of a racist insult, coach Juha Sokka ordered his team to the locker room and demanded the referees of the match to clarify the situation. The match was not played to the end and according to Soka, the judges did not demand that the match continue.
§ 8 Prohibition of discrimination
No one may be discriminated against on the basis of age, origin, nationality, language, religion, belief, opinion, political activity, trade union activity, family relationships, health status, disability, sexual orientation or any other reason related to the person. Discrimination is prohibited regardless of whether it is based on a fact or assumption concerning the person himself or someone else.
In addition to direct and indirect discrimination, the discrimination referred to in this law includes harassment, denial of reasonable accommodations, and instructions or orders to discriminate.
Section 13 Indirect discrimination
Discrimination is indirect if a seemingly equal rule, basis or practice puts someone in a less favorable position than others based on a reason related to the person, except if the rule, basis or practice has an acceptable goal and the means used to achieve the goal are appropriate and necessary.
Section 16 Prohibition of retaliation
A person may not be treated unfavorably or in a way that causes negative consequences for him because he has invoked the rights or obligations stipulated in this law, participated in the investigation of a discrimination case, or taken other measures to ensure equality.
Section 23 Refund
A person who has been subject to discrimination or countermeasures has the right to receive compensation from the authority, employer, early childhood education organizer or service provider, training organizer or provider of goods or services that has discriminated against him or targeted him with countermeasures in violation of this law.
The Ice Hockey Federation banned Soka for three matches and fined Pelicans a thousand euros. According to the Equality Commissioner, the punishment given to the coach was a prohibited countermeasure, as referred to in Section 16 of the Equality Act.
According to the Equality Commissioner, “the player was subjected to indirect discrimination prohibited by the Equality Act, because both the Jääkieksliiotto’s instructions for addressing racist harassment and the referees’ training have been inadequate”.
President of the Ice Hockey Association Harri Nummela comment on the matter to Urheilu by phone.
As chairman, how do you feel about the fact that the union violated the equality law here?
– We have taken corrective measures so that this would not happen again in the future, and I believe that this publicly discussed case was certainly a good wake-up call for the entire hockey community that we need to improve in excluding racism and other inappropriate behavior.
What did you learn?
– This has been quite a learning process for us about what the equality law requires and what indirect discrimination means in practice. In our case, it was about the fact that our instructions and training were not sufficient in this regard.
What kind of image crash?
– We regret that this created an image in the public eye that we somehow belittled this matter or that we did not take it seriously. Vice versa. We went through this case and our other actions in eradicating inappropriate behavior very thoroughly, and it took its own time.