Workplace Discrimination Solicitors

The Protected Characteristics

The Equality Act 2010 protects employees and job applicants from discrimination based on nine protected characteristics: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation. Unlike most other employment claims, there is no minimum length of service required — you are protected from your first day, and in recruitment situations, even before you are employed.

The Four Types of Discrimination

• Direct discrimination — being treated less favourably than someone else because of a protected characteristic.
• Indirect discrimination — a policy, rule or practice that applies to everyone but puts people sharing a protected characteristic at a particular disadvantage, and which the employer cannot objectively justify.
• Harassment — unwanted conduct related to a protected characteristic that violates your dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment.
• Victimisation — being treated badly because you have made or supported a complaint about discrimination, or are believed to have done so.

Direct discrimination generally cannot be justified by an employer, save in very narrow circumstances such as a genuine occupational requirement. Indirect discrimination can be defended if the employer can show the practice was a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate business aim — this is a high bar, and we can advise on whether a justification put forward by your employer is likely to succeed.

Why Discrimination Claims Are Different

Two features set discrimination claims apart from ordinary unfair dismissal. First, there is no qualifying period of employment — you do not need two years' service, or indeed any minimum service at all. Second, compensation is uncapped. Alongside your financial losses, you can also claim for injury to feelings, assessed against tribunal guideline bands that reflect the seriousness of the treatment you experienced.

Discrimination and Redundancy or Dismissal

Discrimination often surfaces alongside other claims — for example, where someone is selected for redundancy shortly after returning from maternity leave, or dismissed after raising a disability-related adjustment request. If you believe a dismissal, redundancy selection, or a settlement agreement you have been offered may be connected to a protected characteristic, it is worth having the full picture reviewed, since a discrimination claim can significantly change the value of your case.

Time Limits Are Strict

You normally have three months less one day from the discriminatory act — or from the last in a series of related acts — to bring a claim, though contacting ACAS for early conciliation can extend this. Tribunals apply this deadline strictly, so if you believe you have experienced discrimination at work, do not delay in seeking advice.

Get Advice Now

Call us on 020 3058 3365 or complete the form for a free, confidential assessment. We will explain your options clearly, including whether a negotiated resolution or a tribunal claim best protects your interests.