Diversity: are you aware of the current UK law?

As an employer, are you aware of the law when it comes to diversity and inclusion? If the answer's 'no', then here's our summary.

The Equality Act 2010 legally protects people from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society. It replaced previous anti-discrimination laws with a single Act, making the law easier to understand and strengthening protection in some situations. It sets out the different ways in which it’s unlawful to treat someone.

It is against the law to discriminate against anyone because of:

• Age
• Sexual orientation and being or becoming a transsexual person. Employers should always have an appointed LGB&T champion at senior manager level, sometimes in HR or OR Being married or in a civil partnership
• Being pregnant or on maternity leave
• Disability. Employers should also make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to help disabled employees and job-applicants such as Braille, audio, extra time to complete tests, wheelchair access
• Race including colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin Religion, belief or lack of religion/belief
• Sex
• Direct discrimination - treating someone with a protected characteristic less favourably than others
• Indirect discrimination - putting rules or arrangements in place that apply to everyone, but that put someone with a protected characteristic at an unfair disadvantage

For more information on diversity legislation, please get in touch.