Employers: preventing discrimination
Discrimination in work
You must not discriminate against your workers. This could be done by, for example:
- introducing policies or benefits that discriminate between workers, for example a benefit for married workers that’s not available for people in a civil partnership
- paying men and women different amounts (this includes benefits, for example company cars) to do the same job
- choosing someone for redundancy because they have a protected characteristic
- failing to make reasonable adjustments for a disabled worker
- firing someone for making an allegation of discrimination
- firing someone because they’re a union member
- unfairly rejecting a request for flexible working
This includes self-employed people on a contract for you.
You cannot promote or train workers just because of their age or the time they’ve worked for you.
You’re allowed to ask workers about their future career plans, including retirement. These questions should only be asked in discussions about career development and not based on the employee’s age.
Preventing discrimination
You can help prevent discrimination by:
- having an equality, diversity and inclusion policy
- providing regular anti-discrimination training
- making it clear what workers should do if discrimination happens
Find out more about how to prevent discrimination at work on the Acas website.
You’re responsible for any instances of discrimination at work unless you can show you’ve done everything you reasonably could to prevent or stop it.
Employment tribunals
A worker who thinks they’ve been discriminated against can raise a grievance or take their case to an employment tribunal.
Employing family members
If you hire members of your family you must:
- avoid special treatment in terms of pay, promotion and working conditions
- make sure tax and National Insurance contributions are done correctly
Gender reassignment
As soon as a worker tells their employer that they’re having gender reassignment, they’re protected from discrimination. Discrimination includes:
- disadvantaging the worker because they have to take time off for medical treatment
- not allowing the worker to use facilities appropriate to their gender (for example, toilets)
To avoid discrimination, you must:
- change your records (for example, human resources records) when the worker has a Gender Reassignment Certificate and a new birth certificate
- make sure you keep any information the worker gives you about their gender history completely confidential