SEX

Under the terms of the Equality Act 2010 it is unlawful for any employer to discriminate against any employee based on their sex. While you might think that this simply means that a women can’t be paid less than a man for doing essentially the same job, the fact is that men can also be subject to discrimination in the workplace on the grounds of their sex. For instance, sometimes whilst maternity leave may be acceptable, paternity leave is discouraged or frowned upon.

While all forms of sex discrimination are unlawful, they can fall into five broad categories:

• Direct Discrimination. This might occur when a man is discriminated against during the recruitment process because the employer believes that they wouldn’t fit into a predominately female workforce.
• Indirect Discrimination. This might take place due to rules or practices that apply to both sexes, but which have a disproportionate effect on one sex or the other. For example, a company that only offers full time jobs could discriminate against women, who are statistically more likely to be caring for school age children and wanting to work part time.
• Victimisation. This can happen when you have made a complaint about sex discrimination in the workplace. You may have raised a complaint about being denied flexible working to help with the school run or you have complained about sexist behaviour in the workplace.
• Sexual harassment. This can apply when you are subjected to lewd comments, innuendos or harassment of a sexual nature.
• Harassment on the grounds of sex. This occurs when you are subjected to unwanted conduct related to your sex such as name calling on the grounds of your sex.

If you have suffered sex discrimination at work or during the recruitment process, then you must act quickly. You have three months, less one day, from the date of the last discriminatory act to start a complaint at an employment tribunal. You can bring complaints against your employer and individual perpetrators of the discrimination or harassment.

Before you can do this however you must first submit your claim to the Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) so they can establish whether your employer will agree to ‘early conciliation’. This can take up to a month but the period by which you must submit your claim to the employment tribunal will be extended by the same period. Where ACAS fails you may then be able to file a claim at an employment tribunal.