The Equality Act 2010 protects your from suffering discrimination on the basis of a protected characteristic: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage/ civil partnership, pregnancy/ maternity, race, religion/ belief, sex or sexual orientation. The Trade Union Labour Relations Consolidation Act 1992 protects you from suffering discrimination on the basis of your union membership.
Your immediate course of action will depend on who it is you believe is acting in a discriminatory way towards you.
If it is your immediate manager or supervisor then you should approach the next level of management. If it is another employee or another manager, you should raise your concerns with your immediate line manager.
If things don’t improve then you should follow your organisation's grievance procedure. You have a legal right to be accompanied by a work colleague or a trade union official to the hearing of your grievance. You will need to support your concerns by providing specific instances of where you feel such discrimination has taken place, so you should keep a record of examples and when they occurred.
If you can’t sort things out with your employer you can present a discrimination claim to an employment tribunal, but you must do this within the specified time limits. If you have raised the issue on several occasions but the discrimination persisted uninterrupted (ie continuously over a certain period), the time limits will begin from the date of your last complaint.
