The Equality Authority wants the grounds for taking a case against workplace discrimination to be expanded when a forthcoming review of the law is carried out.
It proposes the addition of four new grounds to the Employment Equality Act, which already outlaws discrimination or victimisation in employment on nine grounds.
The new grounds proposed are: socio-economic status, criminal conviction, political opinion and membership of a trade union.
The existing nine grounds are: gender, marital status, family status, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, race or membership of the Traveller community.
The authority's proposals will be considered by the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform when it reviews the Employment Equality Act later this year. The Act became law in October 1999 and the review is due to be completed by next October.
The Equality Authority gives free advice to people who believe they may be experiencing discriminatory treatment in relation to work or vocational training.
It can try to resolve complaints without resorting to legal procedures and refer cases to the Office of the Director of Equality Investigations for investigation.
The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Mr O'Donoghue, recently said he would review the Employment Equality Act "with a view to assessing whether there is a need to add to the discriminatory grounds".
Gender discrimination accounted for almost 60 per cent of the 202 cases taken under the Act last year.