Sex Discrimination

It is against the law for you to treat your employees unfairly because of their sex.

This applies not only to men and women, but also to anyone who is undergoing, planning to undergo, or has undergone gender reassignment (a sex change).

People who are protected by the law on sex discrimination include:

  • people who are applying for a job
  • apprentices and people on work experience
  • self-employed people who have a contract to provide a service
  • contract and agency workers
  • part-time workers.

Sex discrimination can be direct or indirect. Direct discrimination occurs if your employee is being treated less favourably than someone else because of their sex. For example, if they have not been promoted because they are female.

Indirect discrimination occurs if you have a rule, policy or practice which puts your employees at a disadvantage because of their sex, even when the rule does not exist in order to disadvantage your employee. For example, a requirement to work full time, which may be harder for women as they are more likely than men to be looking after children. You may be able to argue that the discrimination is legitimate if you can show a strong business justification for the rule that leads to the discrimination.

Some common situations at work when your employees could experience sex discrimination include:

  • when they are applying for promotion
  • difference in pay between men and women
  • unfair access to training and development opportunities, or other benefits
  • decisions about who is chosen for redundancy

Other aspects of sex discrimination include:

  • the right not to be treated differently from other employees because they are pregnant, or they have been on maternity leave
  • sexual harassment - conduct towards your employees which is of a sexual nature, and is intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive.
  • discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation

Your employee may decide to resign if they feel that their position at work is no longer tenable as a result of the discrimination they are suffering, in which case they may be able to claim for constructive dismissal. Furthermore, if they have been subjected by you to any detriments because of a complaint they have made (or intend to make) about their discrimination, they will also have a potential claim for victimisation.

If you would like more detailed information about sex discrimination, Ashby Cohen can help you. We specialise in employment law cases, and our years of experience as employment lawyers make us uniquely qualified to assist you with any sex discrimination issues you may have. Please contact us for an initial free consultation.

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