Employment Law

Discrimination at Work — Your Rights Under the Equality Act 2010

5 May 2025⏱ 7 min read🇬🇧 England & WalesLast reviewed: May 2025

Discrimination at work is more common than many people realise — and more broadly defined in law than most assume. The Equality Act 2010 protects workers from unfair treatment based on nine protected characteristics, from age and disability to race, sex, and religion. This guide explains every type of discrimination, what you can do about it, and what compensation you could recover.

What Is Workplace Discrimination?

Workplace discrimination occurs when an employer — or a colleague, customer, or other person in a work context — treats you unfavourably because of a protected characteristic. The Equality Act 2010 prohibits discrimination across all aspects of employment: recruitment, pay, promotion, working conditions, training, dismissal, and references. It applies to employees, workers, job applicants, and in many cases to the self-employed and contractors.

The Nine Protected Characteristics

The Equality Act 2010 sets out nine protected characteristics. Discrimination based on any of these is unlawful:

Age — treating someone less favourably because of their age (young or old). Unlike most other characteristics, age discrimination can be justified by an employer if there is a legitimate aim and the means are proportionate.
Disability — a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on your ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. The Act imposes a separate duty on employers to make reasonable adjustments.
Gender reassignment — protecting people who are proposing to undergo, undergoing, or who have undergone gender reassignment.
Marriage and civil partnership — limited protection, applying only in the employment context (not to goods and services).
Pregnancy and maternity — protection during pregnancy and maternity leave; one of the most litigated areas.
Race — including colour, nationality, and ethnic or national origin.
Religion or belief — including lack of religion or belief, and philosophical beliefs.
Sex — including pay discrimination between men and women (equal pay).
Sexual orientation — including gay, lesbian, bisexual, and heterosexual orientations.

Types of Discrimination

Direct Discrimination

Treating you worse than someone else because of a protected characteristic — for example, not promoting a woman because she is pregnant, or paying a Black employee less than a white employee doing the same job. Direct discrimination (except for age) can never be justified.

Indirect Discrimination

Where an employer applies a provision, criterion, or practice (PCP) to everyone equally but it puts people with a particular protected characteristic at a particular disadvantage — and the employer cannot justify it. For example: requiring all employees to work Sundays (may disadvantage certain religious groups) or requiring a minimum height (may disadvantage women). Indirect discrimination can be justified if the employer shows it is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim.

Harassment

Unwanted conduct related to a protected characteristic that has the purpose or effect of violating your dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating, or offensive environment. A single serious incident can amount to harassment. It does not require the harasser to intend to cause offence — it is assessed by whether a reasonable person in your position would find it offensive.

Victimisation

Treating you badly because you have made or supported a complaint of discrimination, or because you are suspected of doing so. Victimisation claims have no qualifying period and are often brought alongside the underlying discrimination claim.

Failure to Make Reasonable Adjustments (Disability)

Where an employer fails to take reasonable steps to remove a disadvantage faced by a disabled employee. What is "reasonable" depends on the employer's size and resources, the effectiveness of the adjustment, and its cost. Common adjustments include: flexible working hours, adapted equipment, additional breaks, working from home, and phased returns after sickness.

Use our Discrimination at Work Checker to assess what type of discrimination may have occurred and what options are available to you.

Equal Pay

Under the Equality Act 2010, men and women are entitled to equal pay for equal work. "Equal work" includes: like work (same or broadly similar work), work rated as equivalent under a job evaluation scheme, and work of equal value. If you are paid less than a comparator of the opposite sex doing equal work, your employer must show there is a "material factor" explaining the difference that is not related to sex. Pay secrecy clauses that prevent you from discussing your pay with colleagues to establish whether you are being discriminated against are unenforceable.

What to Do If You Experience Discrimination

Keep a detailed record — write down what happened, when, where, who was present, and any witnesses. Save emails, messages, and documents. Contemporary records are far more persuasive at tribunal than accounts written months later.
Request information — you can ask your employer questions about the treatment using the Equality Act questionnaire procedure. While employers are not legally obliged to answer, an evasive or contradictory response can be used as evidence at tribunal.
Raise a formal grievance — follow your employer's grievance procedure. Failure to do so without good reason can reduce any tribunal award by up to 25%. The grievance process also forces the employer to investigate and creates a paper trail.
Contact ACAS — if internal resolution fails, you must contact ACAS for early conciliation before lodging a tribunal claim. ACAS can facilitate settlement and the conciliation period pauses your time limit.
Lodge an Employment Tribunal claim — the claim must be received within three months minus one day of the discriminatory act (or the last act in a continuing series). Time limits are strictly enforced.

Estimate potential tribunal compensation with our Employment Tribunal Fee Estimator and No Win No Fee Checker.

Compensation for Discrimination

Unlike unfair dismissal, there is no cap on compensation for discrimination claims. The tribunal can award: a compensatory award for financial loss (lost earnings, loss of pension, future loss); an injury to feelings award (typically £1,100–£58,700 depending on severity, under the Vento bands updated from April 2024); and — in cases of deliberate or serious conduct — aggravated and exemplary damages. There is also no qualifying period — you can bring a discrimination claim from your first day of employment.

Discrimination claims are complex. The type of claim, what evidence you need, and how to run the case all depend heavily on the specific facts. An employment solicitor or specialist adviser can make a significant difference to your prospects.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need two years' service to claim discrimination?+

No. Discrimination claims have no qualifying service period. You can bring a claim from your very first day of employment, or even as a job applicant if you were discriminated against during recruitment.

What is the time limit for a discrimination claim?+

Three months minus one day from the act of discrimination (or the last act in a continuing course of conduct). You must contact ACAS for early conciliation before this deadline. The tribunal has a discretion to extend time for discrimination claims if it is just and equitable to do so — but this is not guaranteed.

Can my employer sack me for making a discrimination complaint?+

Dismissing or treating you badly for raising a discrimination complaint is victimisation — itself unlawful under the Equality Act 2010. Any dismissal in these circumstances would also likely be automatically unfair. You would have strong grounds for a tribunal claim with no service requirement.

Can I claim discrimination if the person who treated me badly shares my protected characteristic?+

Yes. The person treating you badly does not need to be of a different protected characteristic. A disabled manager can discriminate against a disabled employee; a woman can harass another woman on grounds of sex. What matters is that the treatment is because of the protected characteristic, not the characteristic of the perpetrator.