Discrimination law in the United Kingdom: an employer's guide
Reviewed by Mellow Editorial Team, HR & payroll content team
Discrimination law in the UK protects workers from unfair treatment based on who they are. The Equality Act 2010 is the main piece of legislation, and getting it wrong — even unintentionally — can lead to employment tribunal claims, reputational damage, and uncapped compensation awards.
The nine protected characteristics
The Equality Act 2010 prohibits discrimination based on nine protected characteristics:
- Age
- Disability
- Gender reassignment
- Marriage and civil partnership
- Pregnancy and maternity
- Race (including colour, nationality, and ethnic or national origin)
- Religion or belief
- Sex
- Sexual orientation
Protection applies not just to employees but also to workers, job applicants, and in some cases contractors. The Employment Rights Act 2025 has further strengthened day-one rights, so new starters have meaningful protections from their first day.
Types of discrimination you need to understand
Discrimination does not only mean treating someone differently because of a protected characteristic. There are several distinct legal concepts:
Direct discrimination is treating someone less favourably because of a protected characteristic — for example, rejecting a job applicant because she is pregnant.
Indirect discrimination occurs when a policy, rule or practice applies to everyone but puts people with a particular protected characteristic at a disadvantage. A blanket requirement to work every Saturday could, for instance, disadvantage certain religious groups. Indirect discrimination can sometimes be objectively justified if you can show the policy is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim.
Harassment is unwanted conduct related to a protected characteristic that violates someone's dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment. It does not have to be intentional.
Victimisation means treating someone unfairly because they have made a discrimination complaint or supported someone else who has.
Failure to make reasonable adjustments applies specifically to disability. Employers must take reasonable steps to remove barriers that put a disabled person at a substantial disadvantage compared to non-disabled colleagues. What counts as "reasonable" depends on the cost, practicality, and the size of your organisation.
Where discrimination can occur
The law covers the entire employment relationship, not just the point of hire. Areas where claims commonly arise include:
- Recruitment — job adverts, interview questions, and selection criteria
- Pay and benefits — employees must not receive worse terms because of a protected characteristic
- Promotion and development — withholding opportunities on discriminatory grounds
- Disciplinary and grievance processes — applying these inconsistently based on protected characteristics
- Redundancy — selection criteria must be applied fairly; pregnancy and maternity carry particularly strong protections
- Dismissal — an otherwise fair dismissal can become discriminatory if it is connected to a protected characteristic
A useful rule of thumb: ask whether the same decision would have been made for someone without that characteristic. If the answer is no, you may have a problem.
Practical steps for employers
You cannot guarantee your organisation will never face a claim, but you can significantly reduce your exposure and, more importantly, create a fairer workplace.
Policies and training. A written equality and diversity policy sets expectations. Training — particularly for managers who make day-to-day decisions about hiring, performance and pay — helps translate policy into behaviour. Document that training took place.
Recruitment practices. Use objective, skills-based criteria. Avoid interview questions about protected characteristics (pregnancy intentions, religious observance, whether someone has children). Consider anonymising CVs at the shortlisting stage.
Pay transparency. Organisations with 250 or more employees must publish gender pay gap data. Even if you are below that threshold, unexplained pay disparities between groups are a warning sign worth investigating.
Reasonable adjustments process. Have a clear process for receiving and responding to adjustment requests from disabled employees. Document the request, the assessment, and the outcome. Silence or delay can itself constitute a failure.
Grievance handling. Take every complaint seriously, investigate promptly and impartially, and protect the person who raised it from retaliation. A well-handled grievance can prevent a tribunal claim; a poorly handled one often precipitates one.
Third-party harassment. Employers have a duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment, including harassment by third parties such as customers or clients. Reviewing client-facing roles and having a clear reporting route is part of meeting that duty.
When things go wrong
Employment tribunals hear discrimination claims, and there is no cap on compensation for successful claims — awards can include injury to feelings as well as financial loss. The burden of proof shifts to the employer once a claimant establishes facts from which discrimination could be inferred. That means your documentation, your policies, and how consistently you have applied them all matter.
Early conciliation through Acas is a required step before a claim reaches tribunal, and many disputes are resolved at that stage. If a claim does proceed, taking prompt legal advice is sensible — this guide is general information, not legal advice, and the specifics of any situation should be assessed by a qualified employment lawyer.
---
Run HR and payroll in United Kingdom with Mellow
Mellow brings HR, payroll and 12 AI agents into one platform — built to handle United Kingdom properly, with payroll included, from £4 per employee per month. The AI agents don't just answer questions; they generate contracts, run cost estimates and draft letters for you.
- United Kingdom payroll software
[Start a free trial →](/register)