Are you being treated unfairly at work? Have you considered that this might be due to discrimination?

It’s only unlawful discrimination if you’re treated unfairly because of one or more protected characteristics as defined by the Equality Act.  These are: age; disability; gender reassignment; marriage and civil partnership; pregnancy and maternity; race; religion or belief; sex; sexual orientation.

There are different types of unlawful discrimination. You may be experiencing unlawful discrimination if someone:

• treats you differently and worse than others because of who you are, because of who they think you are or because of someone you are connected to – this is called direct discrimination
• applies a policy, rule or way of doing things that puts you and other people like you at a disadvantage compared with others – this is called indirect discrimination
• treats you badly because of something connected to your disability – this is called discrimination arising from a disability
• fails to make a reasonable adjustment if you’re disabled – this is called the duty to make reasonable adjustments
• treats you in a way that is offensive, frightening, degrading, humiliating or distressing – this is called harassment
• treats you badly because you complained about discrimination or because they think you complained about discrimination – this is called victimisation.

If you’ve been discriminated against at work, or when applying for a job, it’s always best to act as quickly as possible. This is because if you want to take your complaint to the employment tribunal, you need to make your claim within 3 months of the discrimination happening, even if you’re trying to resolve the problem informally first.

For more information about what to do before you take action about discrimination in the workplace click here. This gives information about who can take action under the Equality Act.  It also gives guidance on how to identify discrimination at work, and how to work out the outcome you want. There is a handy flowchart to help you take action about discrimination at work.

There is a handy flowchart to help you take action about discrimination at work. For further information and how to resolve these problems click here