Finding Legal Assistance Against Workplace Discrimination

You have rights that protect you from discrimination. Don’t let discrimination hold you back from reaching your future potential.

The stigmas and ignorance that disabled people have to endure has shown to impact mental health directly. You are not alone, and there are avenues you can take to prevent this. This blog outlines what counts as discrimination and how you can take action.

What Counts as Discrimination?

Your employer has a legal obligation to make reasonable adjustments to allow you to work. This does not mean that the employer must adapt the job role to keep you hired. If you cannot perform the job, even with reasonable adjustments, it is not discrimination to let you go.

Due to the government’s scheme, Access to Work, your employer has no reason not to make reasonable adjustments. Such adjustments would include making physical changes to the workplace, supplying specialist equipment or altering your work hours.

There are a few different types of discrimination:

Direct Discrimination

Direct discrimination is where you are treated differently to someone without a disability, and that difference is detrimental.

Proving it is direct discrimination is contingent on an example of a person without a disability being treated more favourably, despite being in the same circumstances.

Indirect Discrimination

Indirect discrimination is where your employer sets a rule which seems to be indiscriminate but is unfavourable to disabled people in application.

This type of discrimination is more difficult to spot and prove but is still rather common.

Discrimination Arising from Disability

This type of discrimination emerges where an employer doesn’t accommodate for something associated with your disability, with no good reason.

An example of such a disability includes not accommodating for a carer if you needed one.

Citizen’s Advice has written a helpful guide to check if your problem at work is discrimination.

Types of Assistance

If you are sure that your employer has been discriminatory, there are numerous different avenues you can take.

The most direct way is paying for a solicitor, but this can be very expensive. To find a solicitor, the government’s has a dedicated page for finding the right legal advisor.

Some avenues are free, or regularly free, depending on the case, if you cannot afford the fees of a solicitor.

Getting access to lawyers’ representation for free is known as pro-bono legal help. To find such assistance, you should contact organisations such as LawWorks or The Free Representation Unit.

If you are just looking for advice, you should try contacting a university law clinic or Law Centres. To find one of these in your area, you should search for them on google.

Visit our support page on finding help in your area, for more local assistance.