No excuse

Discrimination is the eighth most common problem people would like advice on. Source: Citizens Advice Bureau

Discrimination or harassment of anyone because of their sex, race,
religion, sexual orientation or disability is against the law. You don’t have to tolerate it.

Take action and report harassment:

• Report Racism for racist abuse and attacks
• HALT for homophobic abuse and attacks
• Oxford Sexual Abuse and Rape Crisis Line for sexual abuse, rape, sexual violence, and harassment.

The Equality Act

In October 2010 a new law about discrimination was introduced. This is called the Equality Act 2010. This makes the rights that you have at the moment stronger, and also gives you some new rights. For example, the Equality Act makes it clearer that you can't be treated worse than other people because of your changed gender, your marriage or civil partnership, your pregnancy or maternity, or because you're a carer.

Download a guide from: www.adviceguide.org.uk or www.equalities.gov.uk

More Rights

A lot of your rights under the Equality Act start from 1 October 2010. So for example, the Equality Act makes it clear that a woman can't be treated worse than other people for breast-feeding her baby in public places like cafes, shops and buses. A bus driver couldn't ask a woman to get off the bus just because she's breast-feeding her baby.

Also, the Equality Act says that you can’t be treated worse than other people because you are a carer, for example for a disabled person. So, an employer couldn't refuse to give someone a job just because they think they will take too much time off to look after their disabled father.

You will also have more rights under the Equality Act that will start in the future.
For example, later on:

• you'll have rights not to be treated worse than other people because of your
  age if you are over 18 when you use goods and services like shops, hotels
  and gyms
• you'll have stronger rights to make a claim that you've been treated worse
  than other people because of a combination of two things. For example, an
  employer might treat black men and white women fairly, but treat someone
  worse than others because they are a black woman. The Equality Act will
  give them stronger rights to take action about this.

The government has not said when exactly these rights will start. But you can look out for further updates on www.adviceguide.org.uk or check out these links:

 

Key links: Equality and Human Rights Commission, Rights of Women, ACAS, Stonewall, Oxfordshire Racial Equality Council,