Employment Discrimination Lawyers

The law protects employees against discrimination at work at all stages and in all aspects of employment, including:

• Recruitment
• Employment terms and conditions
• Pay and benefits
• Promotion and transfer opportunities
• Training
• Dismissal
• Redundancy

There are many different ways discrimination can arise in the workplace. Identifying the issue and having evidence will be critical to making a successful claim against your employer. Some examples of workplace discrimination could include:

• Age discrimination – making older employees with better performance redundant rather than younger employees.
• Unfair pay – workers should be paid the same for performing the same type and standard of work, regardless of gender and ethnicity, for example. Here, employees may be able to bring a specific equal pay claim.
• Access to facilities – if the workplace offers benefits and facilities, such as an employee kitchen area, this should be accessible to all employees including those with disabilities.
• Maternity discrimination – dismissing a pregnant employee for poor attendance when the sickness absences relate to the pregnancy.

Discrimination may be permissible in limited circumstances. If your employer is relying on an exception to allow unfair treatment, take advice to understand if these would be classed as lawful grounds.

If you think you’ve been unfairly discriminated against in the workplace, you are expected to try to resolve the issue informally. Usually this would involve making a complaint directly to your employer, for example to your line manager.

Where attempts to resolve the issue have failed, you may be able to make a claim for discrimination at the employment tribunal.