Disability Discrimination
If you believe that your employer has treated you less favourably than others for reasons related to your disability, you may want to consider taking action. You may also want to think about taking action if your employer has not made reasonable adjustments for you in the workplace.
Action to take if you think you are being discriminated against
As a first step, you might want to have an informal discussion with your employer about your needs and why you feel you are being discriminated against. Remind your employer of your rights and their responsibilities under the Equality Act 2010.
If this discussion does not provide a satisfactory outcome, you could make a complaint about your treatment through your employer’s internal grievance procedure.
If you are still not satisfied, you might want to contact Acas (Advisory, Arbitration and Conciliation Service) or make a complaint to the Employment Tribunal.
If you wish to make a complaint to the Employment Tribunal, you must do so within three months of the alleged discrimination.
Getting information from your employer
Getting information from your employer should help you understand why you were treated in a particular way. It should also help you decide whether or not there are reasons to believe that the treatment may have been against the law.
It can also help you identify which facts the employer agrees or disagrees with. For example, the answers may show if you both agree on the basic facts of what happened and whether the Equality Act 2010 applies.
If you decide to take a case to an employment tribunal you can use the information to present your claim in the most effective way.
How to obtain information
Under the Equality Act 2010, there is a process for people to obtain information from the person or organisation they think may have discriminated against them. The process involves working through the ‘discrimination and other prohibited conduct’ forms. There is one form for your questions and another form for your employer’s answers.
The ‘discrimination or other prohibited conduct’ forms are there to help you ask relevant questions, but you do not have to use the forms to obtain information. You may use different forms or a letter to set out your questions, if you prefer, as long as it is clear that you are seeking information about alleged discrimination.
The question form and guidance on how to complete it can be downloaded from the Government Equalities Office website. Links to this information can be found below.
When to use the questions form
You should use the questions form if the possible unlawful conduct in question happened:
- on or after 1 October 2010
- before 1 October 2010 but continued on or after that date
If the possible unlawful conduct took place before 1 October 2010, the Equality Act 2010 will not apply. However, you may ask questions and obtain information under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. Follow the ‘transitional arrangements’ link below for more information about discrimination and related claims arising before and after 1 October.
Where to send your questions form
You should send your questions form to the person or organisation you feel has discriminated against you. Or send the form to your line manager, supervisor or Personnel Manager. If the person or organisation is acting through someone else (eg a solicitor), you should send it to the address of that person.
You should keep a copy of the completed questions form.
The person or organisation can complete the answers form and send it to you. The form gives them the opportunity to say whether they agree with the complaint or not and explain the reasons why.
However, they are not obliged to answer your questions, or use the answers form to do so. If they do not answer within eight weeks of receiving your questions the Employment Tribunal may take this into account if you bring a claim. They may also take into account any evasive or ambiguous answers given.
