Discrimination happens when an employer treats one of its employee's less favourably than others. Discrimination can involve sex, sexual orientation, age, racial origin, religious affiliation, disability or marital status. If you treat an employee, job applicant or other person associated with your business, less favourably for an unlawful reason you will be liable to pay compensation.

Sometimes discrimination is obvious because one employee is treated less favourably than another due to their gender or a disability, for example. This is direct discrimination. Actions can also be considered discriminatory when they are much less obvious, for example unfairly limiting the chances of one sex or age group. This is indirect discrimination. It is in this regard that employers frequently fall foul of the law and unwittingly find themselves the subject of a claim in the Employment Tribunal.

It is imperative that you have policies in place to ensure that you remain within the law on discrimination issues; to ensure that it is clear to your employees that discrimination will not be tolerated within your business and if a claim is made that a procedure is in place to ensure that you act quickly and fairly under your grievance procedure.

Damages in discrimination claims are uncapped and you should therefore take steps to ensure that the actions of your business are not and can not be considered to be discriminatory. We can assist you in preventing issues of discrimination. Please call us on 08000 320 974 for assistance.

Read more about discrimination issues here.

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We have a great deal of experience in dealing with complicated employment law issues. Canter Levin & Berg has been providing advice to employers for over 30 years so we've seen and dealt with most employment scenarios.

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