Short answer
The Equality Act 2010 prohibits discrimination, harassment and victimisation throughout recruitment, employment, promotion, pay and dismissal in Great Britain. It protects age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation, although the precise causes of action vary by characteristic.
An apparently neutral rule can be indirectly discriminatory if it creates group and individual disadvantage and is not a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. Disabled workers have a separate right to reasonable adjustments. Sex-equality clauses address like work, work rated as equivalent and work of equal value. Religious and philosophical beliefs are protected, but their manifestation may be restricted where a carefully assessed, proportionate workplace need requires it. Harassment turns on unwanted conduct, dignity and the working environment, not simply the speaker's intention.
Positive action may address evidenced disadvantage, different needs or low participation. It is not a licence for quotas or automatic preference. Public employers must also respect Convention rights and the public-sector equality duty. Northern Ireland has separate discrimination legislation, so this Equality Act analysis should not be applied there without checking that regime.
Identify the cause of action before applying proportionality
The distinguishes several claims:
- direct discrimination compares less favourable treatment “because of” a protected characteristic;
- discrimination arising from disability concerns unfavourable treatment because of something resulting from disability, subject to justification and employer knowledge;
- indirect discrimination tests a provision, criterion or practice applied across groups;
- failure to make reasonable adjustments is a distinct form of disability discrimination;
- harassment concerns unwanted related or sexual conduct and its purpose or effect; and
- victimisation protects a person from detriment because of specified equality-law acts, such as bringing or supporting a complaint.
These routes have different comparators, knowledge rules and defences. Except for age, direct discrimination generally cannot be justified. Other routes may require evidence-based proportionality. Employers should identify the rule, reason, affected group, individual disadvantage and claimed legitimate aim.
Indirect discrimination examines both impact and justification
applies where an employer uses, or would use, the same provision, criterion or practice for people without the claimant's characteristic, but it places the protected group and claimant at a particular disadvantage. The employer must then show the rule to be “a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim”.
“it puts, or would put, persons with whom B shares the characteristic at a particular disadvantage ... [and] it puts, or would put, B at that disadvantage”
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Current section 19A also protects a claimant who does not share the characteristic but suffers substantively the same disadvantage as the protected group.
A legitimate aim must be real, not a retrospective label; bare cost-saving is unlikely to suffice. Proportionality asks whether the rule advances the aim, whether a less discriminatory alternative would work and whether the benefit outweighs the harm.
In , the Supreme Court held that claimants need not explain why a neutral test causes the group disadvantage. They must establish the disparate impact and their own disadvantage; the employer then has the opportunity to justify the practice. This matters for opaque examinations, algorithms and criteria whose mechanism is difficult for workers to prove.
Reasonable adjustments are practical, individual and employer-funded
Under , the duty is triggered where a provision, criterion or practice, physical feature or absence of an auxiliary aid puts a disabled person at substantial disadvantage. The employer must take such steps as it is reasonable to take to avoid the disadvantage. In employment, the duty normally depends on actual or constructive knowledge of the disability and disadvantage.
Adjustments may include altered duties or hours, accessible information, equipment, remote work, changed absence triggers or tests, transfer to a vacancy, supervision and a phased return. Reasonableness depends on effectiveness, practicality, disruption, resources and cost. The employer cannot charge the worker.
The process should be collaborative, but the duty remains the employer's. Identify the barrier, obtain focused advice where useful, test alternatives and review arrangements. Delay or rigid reliance on policy may itself breach the duty.
Adjustment and justification are different questions. Making one adjustment does not automatically justify remaining disadvantage or answer every claim.
Religious and philosophical expression requires contextual balance
Religion or belief includes protected religions, lack of religion and qualifying philosophical beliefs. Protection covers holding a belief and, in many circumstances, manifesting it. It does not immunise every manner of expression or discriminatory conduct. Employers may protect colleagues, service users, safeguarding, professional standards and reputation, but must distinguish the belief from an objectively objectionable manifestation and assess actual context.
Relevant factors include what was said or done, tone, audience, connection to work, worker's role, actual or likely harm, consistency of enforcement and whether a warning or narrower restriction would suffice. A complaint does not by itself prove misconduct. Nor can an employer assume from a belief that the worker will discriminate against people with another protected characteristic.
In , a school dismissed a pastoral administrator over Facebook reposts reflecting Christian beliefs about sex and marriage. The Court accepted that some language could be objectionable but held:
“dismissal was unquestionably a disproportionate response”
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The posts were personal, no work misconduct had occurred, reputational risk was speculative and lesser responses were available. The judgment still permits proportionate responses to hateful, harassing or professionally incompatible expression.
The makes Convention rights directly binding on public authorities. Articles 9, 10, 8 and 14 may therefore affect public employment. In private employment they are not usually free-standing claims against the employer, but courts and tribunals must interpret legislation compatibly where possible, and Convention principles inform proportionality.
Equal pay is a contractual equality regime
Part 5, Chapter 3 of the Act inserts a sex equality clause into contracts. A claimant can compare terms for like work, work rated as equivalent under a valid job-evaluation study, or work of equal value in demands such as effort, skill and decision-making. The comparison is term-by-term and may concern bonuses, hours, pensions or benefits as well as salary.
A comparator ordinarily works for the same or an associated employer at the same establishment, or at another establishment where common terms apply. confirms that cross-establishment comparison asks whether the comparator would have been employed on substantially the same terms if doing the same role at the claimant's establishment. It does not decide whether the jobs are of equal value or whether a pay difference is justified.
The employer may defend a difference by proving a genuine material factor unrelated to sex. If it disadvantages women, it must be objectively justified. Market forces, location, skills or recruitment pressures require evidence. Equal-pay claims have specialised procedural rules; ordinary sex discrimination may apply where the complaint is not contractual or no valid comparator exists.
Employers with at least 250 relevant employees are also subject to gender pay-gap reporting. A pay gap is an aggregate diagnostic, not proof of an individual breach.
Harassment and employer responsibility
covers unwanted conduct related to a relevant characteristic that has the purpose or effect of violating dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment. It separately covers sexual conduct and less favourable treatment following rejection or submission. Effect is assessed using the claimant's perception, the other circumstances and whether it was reasonable for the conduct to have that effect.
Employers can be liable for employees' discriminatory acts in the course of employment unless they prove all reasonable preventive steps. Stale policies and generic training may not suffice. Since October 2024, section 40A also imposes a proactive duty to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment.
Positive action and public duties
permits proportionate action where an employer reasonably thinks a protected group suffers disadvantage, has different needs or participates disproportionately little. Measures may include targeted outreach, mentoring or training.
For recruitment or promotion, permits a case-by-case tie-break in favour of a person from the disadvantaged or underrepresented group only where that person is as qualified as the other candidate, there is no automatic-preference policy and the step is proportionate. Reserved posts, quotas and selecting a less-qualified candidate remain generally unlawful unless a separate occupational-requirement exception applies.
Public authorities must also have due regard under section 149 to eliminating unlawful conduct, advancing equality of opportunity and fostering good relations. This is a duty of informed decision-making, not a duty to achieve a predetermined result. It must be exercised consciously, with adequate information and at the formative stage—not repaired by a generic equality statement after the decision.
Conclusion
UK workplace equality law is a set of distinct tests connected by evidence and proportionality. Employers should identify barriers, measure group effects, consider adjustments and less harmful alternatives, and distinguish beliefs from harmful conduct. Equal pay requires structured comparator and material-factor analysis; harassment requires prevention as well as response; positive action requires evidence and careful limits. Human-rights principles strengthen that disciplined assessment, especially for public employers and workplace expression.
Sources
This article provides general legal information, not advice for a specific matter. Laws, facts and procedural deadlines may change the result. Follow the linked primary sources and obtain local advice before acting.