Discrimination

• Stereotyping people of a certain age
• Making someone redundant because of his or her age
• Harassing or victimising someone at work because of his or her age
• Compulsorily retiring someone because of their age, unless it can be objectively justified
• Requiring a minimum number of years’ experience for a job, where this is not necessary

The employment and discrimination team has acted for many women who have been treated less favourably because of their sex. Most commonly, this includes sex discrimination in relation to recruitment, selection for promotion and training and in pay, including cases where women have received lower bonuses than men doing similar work but performing less well than our clients.  Men are also entitled to bring claims of sex discrimination where they are subjected to discrimination as compared to women. 

Sex discrimination can also occur where an individual is disadvantaged because of an unjustified provision, criterion or practice, which applies to men and women, but particularly disadvantages one sex in comparison to the other. For example, requiring full-time or long hours will disadvantage more women than men, as it is still mainly women who take primary responsibility for childcare so cannot work full-time or long hours. 

We act for many women who want to negotiate part-time and flexible hours and obtain compensation for them if their requests are unreasonably refused.

It is also unlawful for service providers such as healthcare providers, social services and retailers including banks, travel agents and travel companies to discriminate on the grounds of sex.  Our human rights lawyers have successfully represented people who have suffered discrimination at the hands of many such organisations and have secured compensation and apologies for such discrimination.

• Obtaining financial compensation from a bank for failing to make reasonable adjustments to allow a blind service user to access the bank’s services, and a promise to change their practices
• Securing financial compensation and an apology from a holiday company for a paraplegic  whose holiday turned into a degrading and humiliating experience as the advice given that the holiday was suitable for someone with his disability  was incorrect
• Winning financial compensation from the Crown Prosecution Service after they decided to abandon a trial on the basis that our client, who suffered Asperger’s Syndrome, was not a competent witness, leaving her with no access to justice for the assaults she had suffered
• Obtaining the provision of appropriate aids and compensation for a disabled prisoner from the Prison Service following their failure to adequately assess or address his disability needs

• Challenging the company responsible for running a prison, HMP Dovegate, for their failure to provide a trans prisoner with access to appropriate healthcare services.
• Challenging the policies and procedures of a financial services provider that discriminated against trans people.
• Acting for a claimant who was subjected to gender identity-related harassment by an NHS Trust.
• Challenging an employer’s decision to refuse to allow a trans employee to use their preferred changing facilities.   
• Representing a claimant in Employment Tribunal proceedings after they were subjected to harassment and direct discrimination by their employer because of their gender identity;
• Challenging a refusal by an NHS Trust to provide a young trans person with hormone blockers;
• Challenging a refusal by an NHS Trust to preserve a trans person’s gametes prior to prescribing and administering hormone treatment, 

• Not offering the same training or promotion opportunities to a woman because she is pregnant or on maternity leave
• Treating a woman unfavourably because she has pregnancy-related sickness
• Dismissing a woman on maternity leave shortly before she is due to return to work (or after she returns) and keeping the person covering her maternity leave on instead
• Making a woman redundant because she is pregnant, or for reasons related to her maternity leave

• Sickness
• Pay and conditions
• Redundancy
• Promotion and training
• Return to work, including flexible and part-time working

• a company favouring an employee of a particular nationality
• a worker being subjected to harassment because of their race
• an individual being forced to work in an environment where racist jokes are made

•  a company favouring an employee of a particular religion
•  a worker not being allowed to pray without justification
•  an individual being forced to work in an environment where jokes about a belief are made

• Stereotyping,  i.e. making assumptions about how gay people behave, for example not employing a gay man at a child care centre because of an assumption that the safety of children will be compromised
• Appointing or promoting a person because of their sexual orientation  whether it be because of a conscious or unconscious preference or prejudice.