Unlike some other areas of employment law, there is no qualifying period for the protection from discrimination. Not only is discrimination unlawful from the very first day in employment, protection starts from the moment a person applies for a job.
The Equality Act 2010 protects employees and job applicants from being subjected to discrimination (less favourable treatment). It makes it unlawful to treat a person, or group of people, differently or subject them to harassment on the grounds of certain defined areas.
Sexual harassment is unwelcome sexual behaviour which either violates a person’s dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for them. Sexual harassment also describes situations in which people are treated less favourably because they either submit to or reject sexual conduct. Harassment may be verbal, non-verbal or physical Verbal: Name calling with a sexual theme, comments about appearance and attractiveness, questions about sex life, comments and …
Definition of harassment The Equality Act 2010 defines harassment at Section 26 as follows: A person (A) harasses another (B) if A engages in unwanted conduct related to a relevant protected characteristic which has the purpose or effect of either: Violating B’s dignity, or Creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for B. Please note that sexual harassment has a further definition relating to rejection or submission of …