Employment law provides protection for workers against discrimination at work on the grounds of sex, pregnancy/maternity, marriage/civil partnership, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, religion or belief, race, disability, age and the membership or non-membership of a trade union.
When the Equality Act came into force (substantially in October 2010), discrimination law was consolidated and simplified. Discrimination law had developed piecemeal, meaning that different legal standards/ types of tests were applied.
The new legislation continues to distinguish between direct discrimination and indirect discrimination. Direct discrimination occurs when an employee receives less favourable treatment because of his or her protected characteristic. An example would be if a man was told he had not been appointed to a secretarial post because it was regarded as a woman's job.
Indirect discrimination is where a requirement or condition is imposed that is apparently not discriminatory but that in practice is more difficult for one protected group to comply with. An example of this would be including in a job advertisement a minimum height requirement for applicants (i.e. imposing a condition which fewer women would be able to comply with than men).
Indirect discrimination (as well as discrimination on the grounds of age) can be objectively justified. That is to say an employer will have a defence to a complaint of indirect discrimination where it can show that the disputed act or omission was a proportionate way of achieving a legitimate aim.
