Discrimination at work claim solicitors

What is discrimination at work?

Discrimination occurs when a person is treated unfavourably at work because of a protected characteristic. This could be by anyone who they encounter in the workplace, including their manager, a colleague or even someone who doesn’t work for the same employer such as a supplier or customer.

Discrimination can take many forms, meaning it can sometimes be difficult for people to determine whether they have been subject to discrimination in the workplace.

According to the law in England and Wales, it's unlawful to treat employees (or potential employees) unfairly at work because of a protected characteristic.

What is a protected characteristic?

Under the Equality Act 2010, it is against the law to discriminate against a person on the basis of certain characteristics. These are called protected characteristics.

You can claim for discrimination at work for the following protected characteristics:

• age discrimination
• disability discrimination
• gender reassignment discrimination
• pregnancy or maternity discrimination
• paternity discrimination
• racial discrimination
• religion or belief discrimination
• sexual discrimination
• sexual orientation discrimination

The law outlines certain aspects of employment where discrimination is prohibited based on an employee’s protected characteristics. These include: recruitment, training, terms and conditions of employment, pay and benefits, promotion and transfer opportunities, redundancy and dismissal.

Under the Equality Act, protection against discrimination applies to people at work as well as consumers, those in education, those using public services, those buying or renting property and members or guests of a private club or association.

Discrimination solicitors

If you believe you have been received unfair treatment at work because of a protected characteristic, you may have been a victim of discrimination at work.

In these types of work discrimination cases the victim needs to prove that they have been discriminated against if they have been treated unfairly at work because of their protected characteristic.

Our discrimination solicitors understand how difficult it can be to prove discrimination at work, and we are here to help you. We also appreciate how distressing employment discrimination claims can be.

We only represent employees (not employers) and we always work to make the discrimination claims process as stress free as possible.

Legal advice on discrimination claims without the jargon

A Co-op Legal employment law solicitor can explain your situation to you without using legal jargon, and ensure that you understand each step as your discrimination case progresses.

It may be that you’ve been overlooked for a promotion because of your age, race or religion, you’ve been singled out for redundancy because you were pregnant or on maternity leave, or you are being paid less than a colleague of the opposite sex who does the same job. In these circumstances you may have been a victim of discrimination at work and your employer could be held legally accountable for their actions.

Time limits for employment discrimination cases

There are strict time limits on employment discrimination cases so the earlier you start your claim, the more effective the process will be for you.

By law you must notify ACAS with details of your claim before it can be lodged at the Employment Tribunal. ACAS will then attempt conciliation with your employer. If the conciliation process is unsuccessful you will be issued with a certificate stating that conciliation has been attempted. Only then can your claim be progressed to the employment tribunal.

Fixed solicitor fees for employment discrimination cases

Once we have provided you with a written quote for the agreed work to be done, that price will not change unless the original information we are given is shown to be incorrect or circumstances change. There will be no nasty surprises.

If you are in the early stages of an employment discrimination dispute, you may want a solicitor to write a grievance letter, and/or your appeal against a grievance outcome. The fixed fee for this service is £420 including VAT.

We also offer an investigation report where we review your documents and advise you on the prospects of your discrimination case succeeding. The fixed fee for an investigation report starts from £450 (including VAT), depending on the complexity of your case.

Do not suffer in silence. Discrimination at work is against the law and your case may help bring an end to unfair practices in the workplace.

What’s the difference between direct and indirect discrimination at work?

Direct discrimination occurs when someone is treated less favourably in the workplace because of a protected characteristic. Indirect discrimination occurs when a workplace policy or procedure applies to everybody, but it puts those who have a protected characteristic at a disadvantage.

Direct discrimination

When an individual is treated less favourably at work because of one (or more) of the protected characteristics listed above, this is direct discrimination. Examples of direct discrimination might include dismissal, refusal to employ someone, refusal to promote someone, or withholding benefits or training from them.

This could be in the form of a pregnant employee being denied a promotion because of her pregnancy, for example, or a disabled candidate being overlooked for a role because of their disability.

Interestingly, the individual in question does not necessarily have to have the protected characteristic in order to be the victim of direct discrimination. They could be treated less favourably because their family member, friend or associate has a protected characteristic - this is direct discrimination by association. Or they could be treated less favourably because they are perceived to have a certain protected characteristic, even if they don't - this is direct discrimination by perception.

Indirect discrimination

If an employer has certain practices, procedures, rules or processes that put people with a protected characteristic at a disadvantage then this is indirect discrimination. The key difference here is that the employees who are at a disadvantage because of their protected characteristic are not being singled out by their employer, they are simply subject to the same rules as everyone else. However, because of their protected characteristic, the rules put them at a disadvantage compared with their co-workers.

Indirect discrimination can occur as a result of formal processes or as a result of one-off, informal arrangements, but the main factor is that the practices, procedures, rules or processes must apply to everyone in the same way. If a rule or policy only applies to some of the workforce based on their shared protected characteristic, then this could be direct discrimination, rather than indirect discrimination.

Any example of indirect discrimination could be a contract clause which applies to all employees saying that they could be required to work late or travel away from home for work at short notice. Although this applies to everyone in the same way, this could potentially put a young mother at a disadvantage, as she would need to make childcare arrangements. This could be seen to be indirect discrimination on the basis of her gender.

Another example of indirect discrimination could be insisting that all employees work on a certain date, which is a religious holiday. Although this rule applies to everyone, it disadvantages certain employees because of their religion while other employees who do not practice that religion will not be at a disadvantage.

Objective justification for indirect discrimination

In certain circumstances, indirect discrimination may not be unlawful if an employer can demonstrate that there is an 'objective justification' for the rule, process or procedure in question.

The employer will be required to show that the rule, process or procedure in question is necessary to achieve a certain aim, the benefits of which outweigh the discriminatory impact. They will also need to demonstrate that there would be no other way of achieving this same aim in a way that did not indirectly discriminate certain employees.

While costs and economic benefits to the business could be taken into consideration, cost alone is unlikely to be sufficient as a justification for indirect discrimination.

Victimisation in the workplace

Discrimination and victimisation in the workplace are closely linked, but they are not the same thing.

Victimisation occurs when someone is treated unfairly at work because they have previously made a complaint about discrimination, or because they've supported someone who has. Victimisation is against the law, and this is set out in the Equality Act 2010.

This means that workers can make a workplace discrimination claim without fear of being treated any differently as a result.

If someone makes a complaint about discrimination, or supports someone else who makes a complaint (or is expected to make a complaint) then it's also against the law to treat them differently because of this. If they are treated detrimentally because of this, then this is called victimisation.

Victimisation can come in many forms. It may be a manager refusing to put an employee forward for a training opportunity, it could come in the form of bullying by colleagues, or it could be being ostracised or singled out by others in the workplace.

For example, if a member of staff makes a complaint about sexual harassment and is then dismissed because of this complaint, the dismissal may amount to victimisation. In addition, if one of their colleagues gave evidence in support of the complaint and was then refused a promotion as a result, then the refusal of promotion would also amount to victimisation, even though the colleague wasn't the original victim of the discrimination.

The only circumstances in which someone wouldn't be protected from victimisation is if they give false evidence in a discrimination claim or if they make an allegation in bad faith. In this situation, the individual would not be protected under the Equality Act 2010.