How to make a discrimination complaint at work

You have the right to challenge discrimination at work without resigning. After your shift, write down what happened, when, who was there and what changed. Save any message or rota you can lawfully access. Put the tribunal deadline in your diary today: a grievance does not stop the clock.

What counts as discrimination at work?

The Equality Act 2010 covers England, Wales and Scotland. Its nine protected characteristics are age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation. Northern Ireland has separate discrimination laws.

Unfair treatment is not always unlawful discrimination. Your complaint needs to explain the link to a protected characteristic, a disability-related disadvantage or a complaint about discrimination. These are the main types of claim:

The tests differ. Direct age discrimination can sometimes be justified; most direct discrimination cannot. Disability knowledge can matter for disability-related claims. Harassment does not cover every protected characteristic, and you do not have to ask someone to stop before their conduct can be unlawful. Acas explains the different discrimination tests.

Who can complain?

There is no qualifying service period for a discrimination claim. Applicants are protected before they start work. Part 5 of the Equality Act also covers more than people on employee contracts:

The contract label is not decisive. See whether you are an employee, worker or self-employed. Employees may also have an unfair dismissal claim, but that has separate eligibility rules.

Employers can be liable for employees’ discrimination in the course of employment unless they took all reasonable steps to prevent it. An individual who discriminated can also be liable. Before notifying Acas, check who you may need to name as respondents. You usually need a certificate for each respondent you plan to claim against.

The route, step by step

1. Make a dated record. Note what happened, the exact words used, who saw it and what followed. A care worker can log a changed rota after requesting an adjustment; a warehouse picker can note who set a different target and when. Preserve relevant messages, rotas and appraisals you can lawfully access. Do not take unrelated confidential records.
2. Choose who to tell. An informal conversation may help if you feel safe. You can go straight to a formal grievance for serious conduct. If your manager is involved, use HR or another manager under your employer’s policy.
3. Send a written grievance. Describe the incidents, why you believe they are discriminatory, your evidence and the outcome you want. Keep a copy and proof of delivery. You do not have to identify the correct statutory section before the employer can investigate. If shifts were cut after a pregnancy announcement or a customer harassed you at the till, say what happened and what evidence exists.
4. Ask for a meeting and a companion. The Acas Code calls for a meeting without unreasonable delay and a written decision. Workers can request a colleague or eligible trade union companion at a grievance hearing about an employer’s duty. Appeal in writing if the decision fails to address your complaint. The appeal should be impartial and, wherever possible, heard by someone not previously involved. See our grievance guide.
5. Notify Acas before time runs out. Do not wait for the grievance or appeal to finish. Before most tribunal claims you must notify Acas and obtain an early conciliation certificate, unless an exemption applies. Talks are voluntary. For notifications from 1 December 2025, early conciliation can last up to 12 weeks.
6. Submit your ET1. If you have not settled, use the tribunal claim service. There is no claim fee. Name the correct respondents, enter the relevant certificate numbers and explain each allegation with dates. Keep the submission confirmation. The respondent uses an ET3 to reply.
7. Prepare for the tribunal. Follow its orders for exchanging documents, witness evidence and a schedule of loss. A preliminary hearing may decide issues such as time limits before the final hearing. The tribunal can declare your rights, award compensation and recommend steps to reduce the discrimination’s effect on you. Ask for hearing adjustments if you need them.

What to put in your grievance

You are asking for an investigation, not writing a legal textbook. Keep the chronology clear. Attach the most useful documents and identify witnesses. Say what would help now, such as restoring shifts, reviewing a promotion decision, making an adjustment or arranging a different reporting line.

For your own letter, replace the facts and requested outcome. Ask when you should expect the meeting and decision. There is no universal statutory response deadline, but the employer should not unreasonably delay.

The evidence that helps explain what happened

Your account matters. The documents and witnesses help the tribunal decide what happened and why. Keep a chronological record, separating what you saw or heard from what you infer. For a delivery rider, that may mean saving a relevant app message; for a cleaner, noting the supervisor, site and shift when treatment changed.

A subject access request can help you obtain your personal data, but it is not a right to every document about the dispute. Ask focused questions about the decision too. Neither request stops the tribunal deadline. Once proceedings begin, the tribunal can order disclosure of relevant documents.

Ask permission before recording a meeting and keep your own notes. Covert recordings raise confidentiality and disciplinary risks; their admissibility depends on the circumstances. There is no rule that an emailed note automatically carries more weight than a recording.

Protect the deadline while the complaint runs

For an act on or after 1 October 2026 in Great Britain, add six calendar months and subtract one day. For an earlier act, normally add three months and subtract one day. Acas explains the change and transitional dates. Equal pay claims have different rules, so use our equal pay guide rather than this calculation.

If the tribunal finds conduct extended over a period, time runs from the end of that period. Repeated incidents are not automatically a continuing act. A decision with continuing consequences is not necessarily continuing discrimination. Failures to act, including adjustment failures, have specific timing rules. Get advice rather than assuming the clock starts again every day.

Timely Acas notification extends the deadline. Under section 140B of the Equality Act, Day A is the notification date and Day B is when you receive, or are treated as receiving, the certificate. Exclude the days from the day after Day A through Day B. There is also a one-calendar-month minimum after Day B where the statutory conditions apply. Use the later deadline, not whichever calculation is easier.

What a claim can cost, and what it can recover

Discrimination compensation has no statutory cap. You can seek financial loss caused by the discrimination and compensation for injury to feelings. Keep evidence of earnings, benefits and reasonable efforts to find replacement work. The tribunal awards loss you can prove, not an automatic payout for winning.

The Vento guidance for claims presented on or after 6 April 2026 sets these injury-to-feelings bands. The filing date matters, not the incident date. The bands guide assessment; £1,300 is not a guaranteed minimum. A single incident can cause serious injury, so the number of incidents alone does not decide the band.

Interest is normally calculated at 8% simple a year. Injury-to-feelings interest runs from the discriminatory act to the calculation date. For past financial loss, the usual starting point is halfway between the act and the calculation date, not halfway through the period of lost earnings. The interest regulations allow a different period to avoid serious injustice.

An unreasonable failure to follow the applicable Acas Code can increase or reduce compensation by up to 25% under section 207A. This is discretionary, not a fixed penalty for an imperfect grievance. Separately, if you win a sexual harassment claim, the tribunal must consider whether the employer breached its preventive duty. It may award a further uplift of up to 25% under section 124A, in force since 26 October 2024.

There is no general loser-pays rule. Each side normally pays its own legal costs, but tribunal costs orders can follow unreasonable conduct, a claim with no reasonable prospect of success, breaches of orders and some postponements. Treat a costs warning seriously and get advice.

Before you agree to settle

An Acas COT3 or a qualifying settlement agreement can resolve the dispute without a hearing. A settlement agreement waiving Equality Act claims requires advice from an independent adviser and must meet statutory conditions. A COT3 does not require that advice, but you should understand the wording before agreeing. It can become binding before you sign.

Check which claims you are giving up, the payment date, reference wording and any confidentiality terms. A settlement resolves the claims it covers, not necessarily every possible complaint. If the agreement waives your claim, you cannot normally accept the money and then pursue the same claim.

Can they punish you for complaining?

Victimisation protects you against disadvantage because you alleged discrimination, supported someone else’s complaint or gave evidence. You can succeed even if the original discrimination allegation does not succeed. False allegations or evidence made in bad faith are not protected.

A dismissal for a protected act can be victimisation, with no minimum service requirement. That does not automatically make it an automatically unfair dismissal under employment-rights law. From 6 April 2026, sexual harassment is expressly included in the whistleblowing disclosure categories. The disclosure must still meet the conditions, including a reasonable belief that it is in the public interest. Dismissal for a protected disclosure has separate protection.

Keep a separate record of retaliation, including incidents after you leave. A discriminatory or retaliatory reference closely connected to the old employment can support a claim. Its deadline runs from that later act. Get advice before resigning; a constructive dismissal claim has its own requirements.

Finding advice without committing to a legal bill

You can represent yourself, but early advice is particularly useful on respondents, deadlines and the value of a settlement. Join or contact the union for your sector: UNISON or GMB in care and health, Unite in hospitality and logistics, USDAW in retail, or IWGB for many precarious and delivery workers. Also try Citizens Advice, a law centre or the Equality Advisory and Support Service. Tribunal representation through the Free Representation Unit depends on its referral and case-acceptance rules.

Legal aid may cover discrimination advice if you qualify. Funding for advice is not the same as funding for tribunal representation; ask the provider what is covered. Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate schemes. When an employer withholds minimum wages, that is wage theft: report it through HMRC’s minimum-wage complaint route. Suspected labour exploitation may be reported to the GLAA, and workplace safety risks to the HSE. These routes do not replace your tribunal deadline. Also check legal-expenses insurance. If you consider a no-win-no-fee agreement, ask what counts as a win, what percentage you keep and what happens if the case ends early.

Scotland and Northern Ireland

For workplace discrimination, Scotland uses the Equality Act, Acas and employment tribunals, with the same October 2026 deadline change. The Vento bands are jointly issued, with a Scotland-specific qualification in the original guidance. Civil claims about shops and services use a different court route.

Northern Ireland uses separate legislation, including the Sex Discrimination Order, Race Relations Order, Disability Discrimination Act and Fair Employment and Treatment Order. Religious belief and political opinion claims go to the Fair Employment Tribunal; other employment discrimination claims generally go to an Industrial Tribunal. The Great Britain reforms do not extend this route to six months.

Most NI employment discrimination claims normally have a three-month limit, less one day. Religious belief and political opinion claims have a different calculation. Before conciliation extensions, the deadline is the earlier of three months from when you knew, or could reasonably have known, about the act, and six months from the act itself. Both periods include their starting day.

Notify the Labour Relations Agency, not Acas. Timely notification stops the clock for up to one month, with a possible further 14 days if both parties consent and settlement looks reasonably possible. Contact the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland for discrimination advice. In Great Britain, the Equality and Human Rights Commission publishes guidance and can act on strategic discrimination issues; an individual complaint still needs its own advice and deadline plan. Our Northern Ireland employment guide explains the separate system.

The reforms that affect your complaint

1. 1 December 2025Acas early conciliation can last up to 12 weeks

   In force for notifications from this date. Talks can end sooner.

2. 6 April 2026Updated Vento bands and whistleblowing protection

   In force. The bands above apply to claims presented from this date. Sexual harassment is an express disclosure category, subject to the whistleblowing conditions.

3. 1 October 2026Longer discrimination claim deadlines in Great Britain

   In force. The normal limit becomes six months less one day where the relevant act or end of continuing conduct falls on or after this date.

4. 30 October 2026Stronger harassment duties

   Scheduled, not yet in force. The sexual harassment preventive duty rises from “reasonable steps” to “all reasonable steps”. Third-party harassment liability will cover harassment within the Act’s definition, including by customers, unless the employer took all reasonable steps to prevent it.

5. 1 January 2027Unfair dismissal eligibility changes

   Scheduled. The qualifying period falls from two years to six months and the compensatory cap is removed. Discrimination claims already have no qualifying service period or statutory compensation cap.

Your employer can investigate the complaint while you protect your right to claim.