Assignment task:
A woman has been hired to work as part of the operations team for a small shipping company. She is 29 years old, has recently become engaged to her boyfriend and has plans to eventually get married and have children. The Managing Director of the company was not included in resume selection or interview process but did do an initial welcome meeting with the woman when she was hired. After he had met with her and got to know her a little bit to the extent that he became aware of her future family plans, he complained to the human resources manager about her hiring someone that would need time off in the future for a wedding and then most likely take maternity leave when she had children. He told the human resources manager that next time she should hire a young man for such positions so they won't have staff on the very busy operations team taking time off for family related leaves. These comments made the human resource manager uncomfortable because she was planning to start a family in the near future as well. She contacts you as the company's legal adviser to determine what she should do next.
Question 1: What is the ground of discrimination displayed here?
Question 2: How would you advise the HR Manager to proceed in relation to the new employee?