This fact sheet should not be considered formal legal advice – for which you should contact the UCU legal help scheme. For further case work advice please contact the branch: casework@birminghamucu.org

Discrimination

It is unlawful to discriminate against people with a protected characteristic: age, disability, religion and belief, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, sex and sexual orientation. UCU opposes unlawful discrimination and will help members who experience it.

Discrimination means that someone has been treated less favourably directly because of one of the above protected characteristics (direct discrimination); or indirectly as a result of a rule or practice that appears to treat everyone equally but puts workers with a particular protected characteristic at a disadvantage (indirect discrimination).

If you think you might have suffered discrimination contact us here – casework@birminghamucu.org – but note that discrimination legal claims normally need to be made within 3 months (minus one day) of the last act of discrimination. So time is an important factor.

Bullying and harassment

Harassment can also be a form of discrimination. Or it may equally be the case that you are being treated badly for no other reason than your manager is a bully, or a colleague has developed a personal grudge.

You can find more details about this on UCU’s website here.