Terms and conditions
It is unlawful for an employer to discriminate against you in the terms of your employment or the conditions you work under because of your age, gender, race, disability, religion and belief, or sexual orientation.
Terms and conditions covers aspects of an employer’s working practices such as hours of work, dress codes, the physical conditions of the workplace, the atmosphere and environment, holidays, flexi-time, and so on.
For example, if an employer imposes a dress code that appears to treat one sex less favourably than the other, you may have a claim of direct sex discrimination.
Requiring every member of staff to work full-time, or conform to particular shift patterns, may discriminate indirectly against women, who are likely to have more onerous childcare responsibilities than men, or against members of religious groups which require observance at particular times or days of the week.
There are a number of special conditions employers must meet to make sure working conditions are fair for all employees.
On this page
Reasonable adjustments
The Disability Discrimination Act obliges employers to make ’reasonable adjustments’ to the workplace and to employment arrangements so that disabled people are not at any substantial disadvantage compared to non-disabled colleagues. Employers can get help with meeting the costs of making reasonable adjustments. Find out more about disability and the law.
The changes might include altering physical aspects of the environment, such as toilets and doorways, or providing ramps, or changes to working practices and criteria, such as altering the disabled person’s hours, or providing supervision or other support.
If an employer doesn’t make necessary adjustments it may amount to unlawful discrimination. However, they can legitimately claim that an adjustment is not reasonable because:
• it would cost too much
• it wouldn’t be practical
• making the adjustment would be too disruptive
• the adjustment wouldn’t be effective.
If you and your employer disagree about what adjustments would be reasonable, an employment tribunal can make the decision.
Your employer also has to make reasonable adjustments if you become disabled while you are an employee.
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Religious requirements
The law does not require your employer to alter buildings or spend significant amounts of money meeting religious needs, but they should be sensitive to religious requirements. For example, requests for holidays during religious festivals should be regarded sympathetically and, if there’s a quiet room, it should be made available as a prayer room provided it doesn’t interfere with the work or disrupt others.
If you work in a shop or in the betting trade you can opt out of working on Sundays, although you need to give your employer three months’ notice. In other types of organisations your employer must consider whether the business legitimately needs you to work on Sundays, or Saturdays for some religions. If they refuse to change your work pattern, it could constitute indirect discrimination.
For more about good practice in accommodating religion and belief see Religion or Belief and the Workplace: A Guide for Employers and Employees.
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Parents and carers
If you care for a child under six, or a disabled child under 18, or if you’re a carer for an adult, you can ask to work flexibly. This could include working part-time or job sharing with someone else. Your employer is obliged to consider your request, using certain procedures, and cannot treat you less favourably because you have made such a request.
If you ask to work flexible hours and are refused, you may have a claim of discrimination on the grounds of sex or marital status.
For example, a woman who wanted some flexibility to care for her family, and was unjustifiably refused, could claim indirect sex discrimination. A man may be able to claim direct discrimination if he could show that the employer would have allowed the same request to a woman in the same situation and position.
Many employers extend flexible working arrangements to all staff, but they are not obliged to do this.
Find out more about flexible working from the Acas website.
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Part-time and job sharing
Employers must treat part-time workers at least as well as full-time workers, unless the differential treatment can be justified objectively. This applies to:
• hourly rates of pay
• access to training and career development
• pensions
• maternity pay
• annual leave
• overtime pay for work outside normal working hours
• redundancy pay.
Because many more women than men work part-time, unfair treatment of part-time workers may constitute indirect sex discrimination.
Temporary staff and employees who job share are also covered, as are workers who return to work part-time at a job they previously did full-time, such as after parental leave.
Find out more about part-time working.
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