Equality Act Duties for Employers

The Equality Act 2010 protects workers and job applicants from discrimination on the basis of nine protected characteristics. These are: age (workers of all ages, not just older workers); disability (a physical or mental condition that has a substantial, long-term adverse effect on day-to-day activities); gender reassignment; marriage and civil partnership (in employment only); pregnancy and maternity; race (including colour, nationality, and ethnic origin); religion or belief (including lack of religion or belief); sex; and sexual orientation.

Protection applies throughout the employment relationship — from job advertisements and interview questions, through terms and conditions, promotion, and training, to dismissal and references.

The Act defines several types of unlawful conduct:

• Direct discrimination: treating someone less favourably because of a protected characteristic than you would treat someone without it — e.g. not promoting a woman because you assume she will want to take maternity leave
• Indirect discrimination: applying a provision, criterion, or practice that puts people sharing a protected characteristic at a particular disadvantage — e.g. requiring all staff to work on Saturdays, which disadvantages some religious groups
• Harassment: unwanted conduct related to a protected characteristic that violates a person's dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, or offensive environment
• Victimisation: treating someone badly because they have raised a discrimination complaint or helped someone else do so

Employers have a specific duty to make reasonable adjustments where a provision, criterion, or practice, or a physical feature of the workplace, puts a disabled person at a substantial disadvantage compared to non-disabled people. What is "reasonable" depends on the size of the business, the cost of the adjustment, its practicality, and the benefit it would bring.

Examples of reasonable adjustments include: flexible or reduced working hours; providing specialist equipment; adjusting workstation height; allocating a ground-floor office; allowing working from home; or adjusting performance targets during recovery from illness. Failing to make reasonable adjustments — or dismissing an employee because of disability-related absence without first considering adjustments — is likely to be unlawful. Government Access to Work grants can help fund some adjustments.