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Our expert employment solicitors are specialists in anti-discrimination law. Discrimination law is complex and we therefore highly recommend seeking legal advice early. We offer free initial advice to all our clients so please call us on [insert number] or request a call back through this website.
Our service is completely confidential. We understand the sensitive nature of these cases and work hard to provide a quick resolution for our clients.
Protected Characteristics
The Equality Act 2010 provides protection from discrimination in respect of the following protected characteristics: –
- Age
- Disability
- Gender Reassignment
- Marriage and Civil Partnership
- Pregnancy and Maternity
- Race
- Religion or Belief
- Sex
- Sexual Orientation
Types of Discrimination
Discrimination can take many different forms. This can include: –
- Direct Discrimination – Treating someone less favourably as a result of their protected characteristic or association with someone who has a protected characteristic. The law also protects those who may be perceived to have a protected characteristic even if they do not.
- Indirect Discrimination – This includes the setting of policies which have the effect of disadvantaging a group of people with a particular protected characteristic.
- Harassment – This includes behaviour of an offensive or threatening nature. Sexual harassment includes being in receipt of persistent and unwanted sexual advances.
- Victimisation – Occurs where an employee or worker is subjected to a detriment because the employee has done, or might do, a protected act such as complaining about discrimination.
Our Work Disrimination Advice Services
We can advise and assist in all types of discrimination cases. Our service is provided by specialist lawyers who are experts in discrimination and harassment claims. We can assist by: –
- Advising you whether the particular circumstances you find yourself in is likely to amount to unlawful discrimination, unlawful harassment or unlawful victimisation;
- If you are still employed and believe you are being discriminated against, harassed or victimised, we can help you through the delicate process of deciding what to do and how to resolve the situation to your benefit;
- We can assist you in pursuing a claim for discrimination, harassment or victimisation in the Employment Tribunal.
Harassment & Bullying
Our employment law solicitors are experts in assisting in the resolution of work place disputes and pursuing claims for compensation when an employee has had to leave their employment as a result of unacceptable bullying and harassment.
The employer should have a policy in place to ensure that all staff are treated and treat others with dignity and respect, free from harassment and bullying.
Harassment or bullying can occur both in and out of the workplace, such as on business trips or at events or work-related social functions. It can also occur between managers and subordinates, fellow colleagues as well as between staff and customers, suppliers or visitors.
If you have been the subject of any harassment or bullying you should first try to resolve the matter informally, with the assistance of your line manager. If you are unable to resolve the matter, or if the matter is too serious to be dealt with on an informal basis, you may raise a formal grievance with your employer.
Your employer should treat any allegations of harassment or bullying seriously and address them promptly and confidentially where possible. Harassment or bullying by an employee may be treated as misconduct under the employer’s disciplinary procedure. In some cases it may amount to gross misconduct leading to dismissal.
Our Employment solicitors can assist you by:
- Advising you of the most appropriate action to take in the circumstances – whether that be trying to resolve the matter informally, raising a formal grievance or resigning and making a claim to the Employment Tribunal for constructive dismissal;
- Assisting you through the grievance procedure,
- Negotiating an outcome to suit your needs,
- Pursuing a claim in the Employment Tribunal.
Disability & Reasonable Adjustments
Our expert employment lawyers are specialists in helping employers understand their duties. Where a duty to make reasonable adjustments arises, the employer must effectively treat the disabled person more favourably than others in an attempt to reduce or remove barriers to that individual’s disadvantage. If you are experiencing difficulties with this please call us now for some free initial advice.
The EHRC Employment Statutory Code of Practice, which tribunals must take into account if it appears relevant, contains a non-exhaustive list of potential adjustments that employers might be required to make.
The duty to make reasonable adjustments is upon the employer; and they must consider and implement all reasonable adjustments before moving to dismiss an employee due to incapability. An employee will be successful in a claim for reasonable adjustments if they are able to establish at hearing that there was a reasonable adjustment which might have alleviated their disadvantage but which the employer did not implement or attempt to implement.
We can advise whether you have a good case to bring against your employer. Our solicitors are experts in robustly litigating disability discrimination cases and work hard to ensure you receive the compensation you deserve.
Our Employment Advice Services
Our Employment Law team can assist you by: –
- Identifying any reasonable adjustments which may help alleviate any disadvantage caused by your disability and negotiate with your employer for those adjustments to be made and therefore help you to remain profitably employed
- Assist you step by step through the employers internal grievance or capability procedures
- Advise and represent you in bringing a claim in the Employment Tribunal for disability discrimination by failure to make reasonable adjustments.
Compensation in Discrimination Claims
Compensation in Unfair Dismissal Claims
Our specialist Employment Lawyers are experts in advising on what compensation an employee might expect to recover if they make a claim for unfair dismissal, drafting the Schedule of Loss and negotiating to achieve a settlement out of Court or at Tribunal.
Potential remedies in a successful claim for unfair dismissal include:
Order for reinstatement: This is an order that the employer shall treat the employee in all respects as if he had not been dismissed. In reality, orders for reinstatement are extremely rare. However, when an employee asks for reinstatement and the employer unreasonably refuses, the Tribunal have a discretion to award additional compensation (either 26 or 52 weeks pay).
Order for re-engagement: This is an order that the employee be engaged by the employer in comparable employment to that from which he was dismissed or other suitable employment.
Where reinstatement or re-engagement are ordered, the employee will only be entitled to compensation for loss of wages to the date of reemployment taking place and will not be entitled to a basic award.
Tribunal Compensation
Basic award:
You will be awarded with one week’s pay for each year of employment with the employer. This is increased to one and a half week’s pay for each year of employment over the age of 41 and is decreased to half a week’s pay for each year under the age of 22.
The maximum amount of a week’s pay is currently £489 (effective from April 2017) and the maximum number of years to take account of is 20.
The amount of the basic award must not be less than £5,000 where the Claimant was dismissed for certain protected reasons including ‘union related’ reasons, health and safety related or activities as a work place representative.
Loss of statutory rights:
This is designed to compensate you for the fact that when you gain new employment you will not have statutory rights such as protection from unfair dismissal until you have reached two years service. This award is normally equal to one week’s gross pay.
Compensatory award:
This element is designed to put you in the position that you would have been in, but for the dismissal. You can therefore claim:
- Any expenses reasonably incurred in consequence of the dismissal and search for alternative work;
- Any loss of employment benefits that you would have had but for the dismissal (e.g. health benefits, bonus schemes);
- Loss of wages from date of dismissal (or end of notice period) to the date of either 1) finding a new job, or 2) a date into the future when the Tribunal finds it is likely you will have found a new job. The calculation will be based on net pay and will take into account any sums you have earned since your dismissal.
- Any compensation may be increased by up to 25% if your employer unreasonably failed to comply with the ACAS Code of Practice. But compensation may also be decrease by up to 25% if you unreasonably failed to comply with the Code.
- There is a statutory cap applied to the maximum amount of compensation recoverable. It is subject to a maximum of 52 weeks gross earnings or £80,541 (effective from 6 April 2017), whichever is the smaller.
Any compensation payable will be subject to your duty to mitigate your losses. In essence if the Tribunal believes that you did not make enough effort to find another job, it will reduce your compensation to what it believes is just and equitable in the circumstances.
The amount of compensation awarded may be reduced if the employer is successful in arguing either that your conduct contributed to the dismissal or if the Tribunal is satisfied that notwithstanding a procedurally unfair dismissal you would have been dismissed in any event.
Our Employment Advice Services
Our expert team of Employment Law solicitors will be able to assist you by: –
- Drafting your Schedule of Loss for you, which will maximise your claim for compensation;
- Advising you on the actual level of compensation that you are likely to recover in your individual circumstances and taking into account the factors which might lead a Tribunal to reduce the compensation;
- Carrying out a costs/benefits analysis to enable you to make an informal decision on your options;
- Undertake negotiations with your opponent to achieve a settlement outside of formal Court or Tribunal proceedings; and
- Represent you at a formal remedies hearing in a Court or Tribunal.
We are able to offer very competitive rates and fixed fee packages for our work. All our initial advice is provided by qualified solicitors and offered for free, so please call us on 0844 800 9860 or request a call back through our website.
