2 Diversity legislation
The key piece of legislation which defines an employer’s legal responsibilities in the UK is The Equality Act 2010 (legislation.gov.uk, 2025), which legally protects people from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society, and sets out the different ways in which it’s unlawful to treat someone.
Watch this short video from Educare to hear a useful overview of the Act.
Transcript: Video 3: What is the Equality Act?
As outlined in the video, the Act describes four main forms of discrimination:
- 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
- harassment – unwanted behaviour linked to a protected characteristic that violates someone’s dignity or creates an offensive environment for them
- victimisation – treating someone unfairly because they’ve complained about discrimination or harassment, or supported a complaint or raised a grievance, related to a protected characteristic.
Other legally recognised forms of discrimination are:
- discrimination by association, which occurs when a person is treated less favourably because of the protected characteristic of a person with whom they are associated, such as a friend, partner, parent or child; and
- discrimination by perception, which involves an individual being treated less favourably because they are mistakenly perceived to have a protected characteristic.
Activity 3 Indirect discrimination
Consider the following examples and, in the box below, explain why they demonstrate indirect discrimination.
- Your manager says everyone has to work between 9am and 5pm.
- A job advert for a salesperson says applicants must have spent 10 years working in retail. (ACAS, no date)
Now spend a few minutes reflecting on whether examples like those could potentially happen in your workplace? What structures are in place to avoid them?
Comment
Example 1
If you’re a woman with young children, this could be more difficult. This rule therefore places you at a particular disadvantage. It also places women generally at a disadvantage, as they’re more likely to be the carers of children.
Example 2
By doing this the business could be discriminating indirectly based on age. This is because the advert excludes young people who may still have the skills and qualifications needed. You’ll learn more about the importance of the wording you choose in a job advertisement in Week 6.
The advert should instead say that applicants need a specific type of experience and knowledge. It should also include the main tasks and skills involved in the job, to show applicants what they’ll need to be able to do.
The full Equality Act 2010 legislation can be accessed online. See the References section for the link.
The link will always take you to the most up-to-date version of the Equality Act, but it is important to be aware of any amendments that have recently come into force or are on the horizon. For example,
- The Worker Protection Act 2023 – came into effect in October 2024, and places a duty on employers to take reasonable steps to protect employees from sexual harassment in the workplace, including sexual harassment by third parties.
- The UK Supreme Court’s judgement, in April 2025, on the use of the terms ‘man’, ‘woman’ and ‘sex’ in the Equality Act (2010), concluding that these are references to biological sex (UK Parliament Research Briefing, 2025) – with implications for the workplace around toilet and changing facilities.
- Employment Rights Bill – at the time of writing, this is progressing through the House of Lords. If passed, some parts of the bill could take effect in October 2025. The Government has laid out a useful roadmap for implementation (GOV.UK, 2025).
The Equality and Human Rights Commission provides regular advice, assessment and commentary on upcoming changes and their implications. Visit their website at https://www.equalityhumanrights.com [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] and search for ‘Equality Act’.
If you are not based in the UK, use your preferred search engine to look for your own country’s government guidance on the topics of equality and discrimination or diversity and inclusion.
Next, you’ll move on to explore some of the wider benefits of diversity and inclusion to you and your organisation.