Equality Act Duties for Employers

The Equality Act 2010 protects workers and job applicants from discrimination on the basis of nine protected characteristics. These are: age (workers of all ages, not just older workers); disability (a physical or mental condition that has a substantial, long-term adverse effect on day-to-day activities); gender reassignment; marriage and civil partnership (in employment only); pregnancy and maternity; race (including colour, nationality, and ethnic origin); religion or belief (including lack of religion or belief); sex; and sexual orientation.

Protection applies throughout the employment relationship — from job advertisements and interview questions, through terms and conditions, promotion, and training, to dismissal and references.

The Act defines several types of unlawful conduct:

• Direct discrimination: treating someone less favourably because of a protected characteristic than you would treat someone without it — e.g. not promoting a woman because you assume she will want to take maternity leave
• Indirect discrimination: applying a provision, criterion, or practice that puts people sharing a protected characteristic at a particular disadvantage — e.g. requiring all staff to work on Saturdays, which disadvantages some religious groups
• Harassment: unwanted conduct related to a protected characteristic that violates a person's dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, or offensive environment
• Victimisation: treating someone badly because they have raised a discrimination complaint or helped someone else do so

Employers have a specific duty to make reasonable adjustments where a provision, criterion, or practice, or a physical feature of the workplace, puts a disabled person at a substantial disadvantage compared to non-disabled people. What is "reasonable" depends on the size of the business, the cost of the adjustment, its practicality, and the benefit it would bring.

Examples of reasonable adjustments include: flexible or reduced working hours; providing specialist equipment; adjusting workstation height; allocating a ground-floor office; allowing working from home; or adjusting performance targets during recovery from illness. Failing to make reasonable adjustments — or dismissing an employee because of disability-related absence without first considering adjustments — is likely to be unlawful. Government Access to Work grants can help fund some adjustments.

The Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023 introduced a new positive duty, effective from October 2024, requiring employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their workers. This is a significant shift from the previous reactive model, where employers were only liable if they failed to respond appropriately to a complaint. Under the new duty, employers must proactively assess the risk of sexual harassment occurring and take preventive steps — regardless of whether any complaint has been made.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) published a statutory code of practice and technical guidance in 2024 setting out what "reasonable steps" means in practice. Steps typically include: a clear anti-harassment policy that explicitly covers sexual harassment; regular training for all staff on what constitutes harassment and how to report it; training for managers on how to respond to concerns; consideration of harassment risks in specific work situations (such as client-facing roles, events, or lone working); and having an effective reporting and investigation procedure.

Employment tribunals can uplift any sexual harassment compensation award by up to 25% if they find that an employer failed to comply with the preventive duty. Unlike the previous position, an employer cannot escape liability simply by showing that the harasser was acting outside their employment instructions — the tribunal will look at whether the employer had done enough to prevent it. The new duty also extends to third-party harassment (by clients, customers, or contractors), something employers should address in their policies and risk assessments.

For small businesses, proportionate steps might include a one-page policy, a brief annual training session, and a clear statement from the most senior person that harassment will not be tolerated. For larger businesses or those with higher-risk environments (hospitality, entertainment, services sectors), a more comprehensive programme is needed. The EHRC can investigate and enforce against employers who persistently fail to comply with the preventive duty.