Protected Characteristics

Legislation protects employees and students from discrimination on the grounds of age. They prohibit direct discrimination, indirect discrimination, harassment and victimisation. As with most other legislation, the law protects everyone equally because of their age, someone could be discriminated against because they are 20 or 60.

Did you know?
A third of young people say that employers are put off by their age.
62% of people interviewing for jobs say that being the 'right age' is important.
38% of employees feel that they have suffered age discrimination at some time while at work.

A person is disabled if they have a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day to day activities. In ensuring discrimination does not occur the University will make reasonable adjustments for people with disabilities. It is therefore unlawful to discriminate against disabled people by treating disabled employees or students less favourably for a reason arising from their disability without justification. 

Did you know?
According to the 2001 census results there are 10.8 million people (of all ages) in the UK who have a long-term health problem or disability, which limits their daily activities or the work they could do. They make up 18.5% of the population.
Only 17% of disabled people were born with their disabilities.
According to the Disability Rights Commission, only 50% of the 6.8 million disabled people of working age in Britain are in employment.

A transsexual person is someone who proposes to, starts to or has completed a process to change his or her gender. A transsexual person does not need to be under medical supervision to be protected.

Did you know?
Gender reassignment is a process that takes several years in many cases.
Gender reassignment is growing. From just a handful of operations ten years ago (62 were carried out in England in 1998), it is estimated that the number of individuals requesting gender reassignment is 0.17 per 100,000 in the population

Legislation protects employees who are married or in a civil partnership. Single people, those who are widowed, cohabiting or divorced are not protected. Students are not protected in education under this characteristic.

Did you know?
Marriage remains the most common form of partnership for both men and women; in Great Britain in 2006 52 per cent of men and 50 per cent of women were married.
There were 236,980 marriages in England & Wales in 2006 (ONS 2008)

Legislation protects women against discrimination on the grounds of pregnancy and maternity.

Did you know?
Mothers' employment has tripled since 1951 to 2008, and this trend looks set to continue.
Women are having their first child much later: the average age for women giving birth to their first child in England and Wales in 2008 was 29.3 years, compared with 28.3 years in 1997 and 26.6 years in 1971.
Women are likely to have fewer children; the average number of children that each woman will have during her lifetime has dropped from 2.95 in 1964 to 1.95 in 2009. 

Individuals are protected from discrimination on the grounds of race. Race includes colour, nationality, ethnic or national origins. A racial group can be made up of two or more different racial groups.

Did you know?
BME people make up more than 10% of the population, but only 8.5% of the workforce and 6% of management roles.
There are variations in the employment rates for different ethnic minority subgroups. These range from Bangladeshis at 44%, to Indians at 69%. 
In the Civil Service, 3% of Senior Civil servants are from an ethnic minority background.

Individuals are protected from discrimination on the grounds of religious or other philosophical belief. This also includes a lack of religion or belief, therefore atheism and humanism are protected beliefs but political beliefs would not be protected.

Did you know?
The 2001 Census shows that the majority of the population class themselves as Christians (71%), compared with 15% who state they have no religion.
Among the non-Christian religions, Muslims make up the largest group (3%), followed by Hindus (1%), Sikhs (0.6%), Jews (0.5%) and Buddhists (0.3%)
37% of Muslim men in employment were working in distribution, hotel and restaurant industry compared with 17% of Christian men.

It is unlawful to discriminate against someone on the grounds that they are female or male, on the grounds that they are pregnant, on the grounds of their marital status or on the grounds of gender reassignment. In the case of gender reassignment the individual will have or will intend to go through gender reassignment.

Did you know?
46.7% of the UK labour force is female.
Out of 27 European Union countries, the UK has the largest pay gap.
In the UK one quarter of female employees and one tenth of male employees have some form of flexible working arrangement.

Individuals are protected from discrimination on the grounds of their sexual orientation. Sexual orientation is a legislative term in the United Kingdom used to describe the direction of an individuals sexuality. Common terms for describing sexual orientation include bisexual, gay, hetrosexual and lesbian.

Did you know?
Lesbian, gay and bisexual people comprise around 6% of the UK population, according to government estimates.
Nearly half of the UK’s estimated three million homosexuals do not reveal their sexuality to all those they work with.
One in ten gay men and one in eight lesbians were harassed at work during 2006 because of their sexuality.