Leading Commercial Law Firm
Serving Manchester and Cheshire

Equality And Discrimination Issues- Sex, Race, Disability, Age

Our specialist employment solicitors have extensive experience in dealing with all types of discrimination.

The implementation of the Equality Act in October 2010 has brought significant changes to discrimination law. The protected characteristics (being sex, age, race, religion and belief, disability, pregnancy and maternity, gender reassignment, sexual orientation and marital status) are now consolidated into one piece of legislation.

Amongst other changes, the Equality Act 2010 extends the concepts of discrimination by association and perceived discrimination and provides a uniform definition of harassment. This includes protection from harassment by third parties where an employer has failed to take reasonably practicable preventative steps.

These are areas of potential significant liability for employers. As there is no qualifying period required for a discrimination claim and no cap on the level of compensation that can be awarded, employers are seeing more and more discrimination claims being brought.

Our specialist employment solicitors have extensive experience in dealing with all types of discrimination claims and providing assistance on all aspects of a claim for both employers and employees, including dealing with claims where the claimant remains in employment.

Recent examples of our work in this area include:

• Successfully representing a household name retail company in relation to various claims including disability, sex and race discrimination and equal pay claims brought by ex-employees
• Acting for a major national law firm in defending a discrimination claim brought by a solicitor
• Advising a national employer on the impact of age discrimination laws on their collectively agreed severance and early retirement terms
• Advising an employee in respect of a claim of age discrimination and unlawful compulsory retirement resulting in a settlement sum in excess of £150,000
• Representing various individuals in relation to discrimination claims (including maternity discrimination, disability discrimination and equal pay) against former employers, leading to the achievement of six figure settlement sums

Please contact any member of our employment team for assistance. Please also refer to our section on “Employment Litigation- in the Employment Tribunals and the Courts” for further details of the advice we can provide in relation to contentious matters.

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Key Contacts

Joanne M Evans, Partner
0161 941 4000
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Joanne Henderson, Solicitor
0161 941 4000
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John Morris, Solicitor
0161 941 4000
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Charlotte Gilbert, Solicitor
0161 941 4000
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James Chandler, Solicitor
0161 941 4000
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