Discrimination is when you are being treated unfairly or targeted because of a protected characteristic such as age, being married or in a civil partnership, race, gender reassignment, sex, sexual orientation, disability, religion or being pregnant or maternity. If you are treated this way it may be against the law.
Discrimination can take several forms:
- direct discrimination - treating someone with a protected characteristic less favourably than others
- Discrimination by perception – this is when someone thinks you have a characteristic reats you less favourably, regardless of whether you actually have that characteristic. For example if someone mistakenly thinks you are part of a religious group and treats you less favourably because of this, it would still be direct discrimination, even though you aren’t in that religious group.
- indirect discrimination - putting rules, policies, practices 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