It is unlawful for an employer to discriminate on the grounds of sex or race.

• to discriminate directly against an employee if he/she is disabled
• to treat an employee less favourably because of a disability – including recruitment and selection, terms and conditions, dismissal and redundancy (but see below)
• not to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to the workplace to enable a disabled employee to work or to continue to work (see below)
• to harass a disabled employee – for example, by making jokes about a disability
• to victimise an employee in the event of the employee taking legal action because of discrimination, or if the employer helps someone else to take legal action because of discrimination.
• As shocking as it may sound, in some situations employers can treat disabled people less favourably but only if they have a sufficiently justifiable reason for doing so, and only if the problem cannot be overcome by making ‘reasonable adjustments’.
• Examples of the types of adjustments that an employer might make include:
• making physical adjustments to the premises
• supplying special equipment to help a disabled employee do his/her job
• transferring a disabled employee to a different post or workplace
• altering hours of work or giving a disabled employee extra time off.
• Employers must decide whether making an adjustment is reasonable, while taking into account the costs and the size of their business. If the disabled employee is already in the job, the employer can also take into account skills and experience and the length of time the employee has worked there.

You are protected at work from discrimination on religious grounds, whatever your religion or belief, whether you are already working for your employer, or whether you are applying for a job.

Discrimination at work because of your religion or belief could include:

• sacking you because of your religion
• advertising for job applicants of one religion only
• requiring you to dress in a certain way, for example, requiring all women to wear a short skirt. This would not be acceptable for women of several different religions
• requiring you not to wear sacred items. For example, if you were required, as a Sikh man, to remove your kara (symbolic bracelet)
• making you work at times that are against your religion
• victimisation
• bullying at work because of your religion. This is also known as harassment
• failing to provide training opportunities

In October 2006, new legislation was introduced to protect persons applying for jobs and/or promotions, and for those still in employment, who would have ordinarily been disadvantaged because they were either too young or too old. It is now against the law to treat employees unfairly at work because of age. This new legislation only covers employment, adult education and training. There is no law which covers age discrimination in other areas.

If your relationship with your employer has broken down, we can advise you on the merits of a claim made by or against you. We conduct claims in the Employment Tribunal and the Civil Courts.