Dealing with discrimination at work

If you think you are discriminated or harassed by your employer or co-worker at your work, you need not tolerate any longer. There are laws to protect you as well as action you can take against such persons informally or by going through formal legal process.
An employer is not entitled to discriminate against any of his/her workers on grounds of, Age, Race, Sex, Disability, Ethnic/national origin, Colour Sexual orientation and Religion or religious beliefs.

How do You Define Discrimination: Discrimination can be direct or indirect. E.g. ,Direct discrimination can occur where one employee is treated less favourably than another because of one of the reasons listed above.

Indirect discrimination can occur whereby employer practices would seem to indicate that a worker, or group of workers would lose out. E.g. where an employer only offers training to its full-time workers, and as many part-time workers are likely to be women - they can be discriminated and have a reason for pursuing a discrimination case.

Action you can take against discrimination: You can often resolve informally, in its early stages, any apparent discrimination that occurs between you and the perpetrator. However, if this doesn’t work, there is further action you can take, but it is important to follow the correct procedures which may differ between employers, but which all must follow the rules of law.

1) Write a formal letter to your employer setting out your grievance; giving them a set time by which to respond, ie. a minimum of 28 days. It should clearly state how you would like your grievance to be resolved. The letter has to be dated and you should keep a copy along with a note of the date on which you sent it. You can find a sample letter on the DTI’s website.
2) Meeting –You would be invited to a meeting with your employer to discuss matters in more detail. You’re entitled to take someone else into the meeting with you. Failure to meet with your employer on the date/time they’ve stipulated may result in your claim for compensation being reduced, if you should go on successfully to take your case to a tribunal and win.
3) Employment tribunal - If the matter is still not dealt to your satisfaction, you can take your complaint to an employment tribunal. You should let your employer know in writing that you intend to do this, which gives them one last opportunity to meet with you to see if matters can be resolved internally.

If you opt for the latter, you should ensure that you have followed your employer’s grievance procedures first, or else this may reduce the amount of compensation a tribunal may offer you. All employers’ grievance procedures are usually similar, it’s important that you’re aware of them whenever you begin a new job with a different employer.

Irwin Mitchell solicitors have a wealth of experience dealing with compensation claims relating to your accident at work. The Employment Tribunal: Union representative, local CAB or ACAS can advise you on taking your case to an employment tribunal and, if they recommend you go ahead, you need to complete the form ET1 which can be obtained from your local CAB or Job centre Plus or from your local Employment Tribunal office or downloaded from their website. The Tribunal will decide if you have a case to submit.