Sex discrimination in the workplace

Discrimination in the workplace can take several forms including disability, race, age and sex. This article aims to look at some of the issues surrounding sex discrimination in the workplace, such as what it is, what your rights are and what to do if you think you have been the victim of sex discrimination.

Sex discrimination occurs when an employee is treated less favourably in the workplace because of their gender. Being treated less favourably includes receiving less pay, less favourable working conditions, or fewer chances for promotion. The Equality Act 2010 seeks to offer protection to employees from sex discrimination and makes it unlawful for an employer to discriminate against an employee because of sex. This applies, of course, in equal measure to both men and woman.

Employees have a right not to be treated differently (because of their sex) with regard to matters such as recruitment, employment terms and conditions, pay and benefits, training, promotion and transfer opportunities, redundancy and dismissal.

Men and woman who are employed to carry out work of a similar nature – referred to as ‘like work’ – are entitled to equal pay. It is often beneficial for employers to carry out an audit of the companies pay structure to ensure that they are not falling foul of these rules.

If you think you may have been subject to sex discrimination at work, what should you do? It would be advisable to firstly have some informal discussions with your employer to try and resolve the matter. If this fails, you are within your rights to make a claim at an Employment Tribunal for discrimination. You should not be concerned about losing your job as, if your employer were to try and dismiss you simply on the grounds that you have made a claim for sex discrimination to an Employment Tribunal, your employer could then face a claim of Unfair Dismissal.

In some specific circumstances, an employer may offer certain training courses etc to one sex rather than another if this can be proven to be in the course of taking ‘positive action’. For example, an employer can take ‘positive action’ if they currently have no women managers and wish to encourage women to apply for these positions or offer them management training which will equip them to do so.

In summary, sex discrimination in the work place must be taken seriously, and it is important that both employer and employee takes steps to resolve the issues when a case of sex discrimination has been indentified, or if an employee has genuine concerns that this type of discrimination may be taking place.

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