Equality and Human Rights Commission

Make sure you know what is meant by:

• age
• disability
• gender reassignment
• marriage and civil partnership
• pregnancy and maternity
• race
• religion or belief
• sex
• sexual orientation.

These are known as protected characteristics.

View a detailed list of the protected characteristics

Unlawful discrimination can take a number of different forms: 

• Your employer must not treat you worse than another worker because of a protected characteristic (this is called direct discrimination).

For example:

An employer refuses to give a worker access to facilities because of a protected characteristic.

• Your employer must not do something which has (or would have) a worse impact on you and other people who share your particular protected characteristic than on people who do not have the same characteristic. Unless your employer can show that what they have done, or intend to do, is objectively justified, this will be indirect discrimination. ‘Doing something’ can include making a decision, or applying a rule or way of doing things.

For example: 

An employer decides to apply a ‘no hats or other headgear’ rule to staff. If this rule is applied in exactly the same way to every member of staff, Sikhs, Jews, Muslims and Rastafarians who may cover their heads as part of their religion will not be able to meet the requirements of the dress code and may face disciplinary action as a result. Unless the employer can objectively justify using the rule, this will be indirect discrimination.

• If you are a disabled person, your employer must not treat you unfavourably because of something connected to your disability where they cannot show that what they are doing is objectively justified. This only applies if they know or could reasonably be expected to know that you are a disabled person. This is called discrimination arising from disability.

For example: 

An employer imposes a ‘no beards’ rule as part of a dress code and tells staff they will be disciplined if they do not shave. An employee is a disabled person who has a skin condition that makes shaving very painful. They have been treated unfavourably (threatened with disciplinary action) because of something arising from their disability (their inability to shave). Unless the employer can objectively justify the requirement, this may well be discrimination arising from disability if they knew, or could reasonably be expected to know, that the employee had this condition. It may also be a failure to make a reasonable adjustment.

• Your employer must not treat you worse than another worker because you are associated with a person who has a protected characteristic.

For example:

A manager gives the father of a disabled child a bad report because they disapprove of the man’s requests to attend his child’s hospital appointments.

• Your employer must not treat you worse than another worker because they incorrectly think you have a protected characteristic (perception).

For example:

An employer incorrectly thinks one of their workers is gay. They tell them they must change their clothes in a dusty stock room rather than in the communal changing area. This is likely to be discrimination because of sexual orientation based on the employer’s perception, even though the worker is not gay (if the worker is gay, it would almost certainly be direct discrimination).

• Your employer must not treat you badly or victimise you because you have complained about discrimination or helped someone else complain or have done anything to uphold your own or someone else’s equality law rights. 

For example: 

A worker helps a colleague with a sexual harassment claim against another worker. Because of this, their manager marks them down at their annual performance review, commenting that they are ‘not very loyal’. This would almost certainly be victimisation. 

• Your employer must not harass you.

For example:

A transsexual woman is subjected to offensive ‘banter’ at work, relating to her gender reassignment. This creates a hostile and offensive atmosphere for her, and is likely to be harassment.

You can read more about how your employer can prevent and deal with harassment.

In addition, if you are a disabled person, to make sure that you have the same access, as far as is reasonable, to everything that is involved in getting and doing a job as a non-disabled person, your employer must make reasonable adjustments.

For example:

An employer usually gives workers a written copy of their draft annual appraisal and gives them a morning to read the draft and to send any comments to their line manager. The employer arranges for a worker with severe dyslexia to meet their line manager instead and talk through the draft and provide comments. This is likely to be a reasonable adjustment for the employer to make.

You can read more about reasonable adjustments to remove barriers for disabled people.

We look at the process your employer should follow if you become a disabled person or if the impact of your impairment changes in:  If you become a disabled person.