Workplace Discrimination and Harassment

Employment law and unfair treatment

Discrimination in the workplace is taken extremely seriously by the authorities, and there are several laws and regulations in place to protect employees from being treated unfavourably.

Under employment law, employers are not allowed to discriminate against certain employees because of their:

• gender
• family situation
• race
• colour
• disability
• sex
• age
• religion or belief
• ethnic background
• nationality
• sexual orientation
• pregnancy

Similarly, employers cannot treat you differently because you work part-time or on a fixed-term contract.

This applies to your salary, your conditions of employment and the circumstances under which you are required to work.

Age Discrimination

The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006

The regulations (which will not affect the age at which people can claim their state pension):

• ban age discrimination in terms of recruitment, promotion and training
• ban unjustified retirement ages of below 65
• remove the current age limit for unfair dismissal and redundancy rights.

They also provide:

• a right for employees to request working beyond retirement age and a duty on employers to consider that request
• a new requirement for employers to give at least six months notice to employees about their intended retirement date so that individuals can plan better for retirement, and be confident that "retirement" is not being used as cover for unfair dismissal.

Scope of Regulations

The Regulations apply to employment and vocational training. They prohibit unjustified direct and indirect age discrimination and all harassment and victimisation on grounds of age of people of any age, young or old.

As well as applying to retirement they: 

• remove the upper age limit for unfair dismissal and redundancy rights, giving older workers the same rights to claim unfair dismissal or receive a redundancy payment as younger workers, unless there is a genuine retirement
• allow pay and non-pay benefits to continue which depend on length of service requirements of 5 years or less or which recognise and reward loyalty and motivate staff
• remove the age limits for Statutory Sick Pay, Statutory Maternity Pay, Statutory Adoption Pay and Statutory Paternity Pay, so that the legislation for all four statutory payments applies in exactly the same way to all
• remove the lower and upper age limits in the statutory redundancy scheme, but leave the current age-banded system in place
• provide exemptions for many age-based rules in occupational pension schemes

ACAS has also published good practice guidance on the regulations. Age and the Workplace is available free online or can be ordered from the publications orderline on 08702 42 90 90. If employers need further help, they can register online for one of the ACAS training courses.