Are freelancers protected from discrimination?

A hotel cuts your cleaning shifts after you report racist abuse. A care company stops booking you when you say you are pregnant. “You’re self-employed” is not an answer to either complaint. You may have discrimination rights even without employee status. Keep the messages and check your deadline before the firm runs down the clock.

Who qualifies for protection?

The Equality Act uses a wider meaning of employment than unfair dismissal law. Section 83 includes a contract of employment, an apprenticeship and “a contract personally to do work”. That last category can protect you even if you send invoices and pay your own tax.

A cleaner required to attend her rota personally is in a different position from a cleaning business free to send staff. A genuine, unrestricted substitution right can defeat the personal-work route. A limited clause may not. Check both the contract and the reality.

Personal service is not enough. In Jivraj v Hashwani, the Supreme Court distinguished employment from independent services supplied to a client. A plumber running a business for household customers is ordinarily outside this employment protection. A carer following a care company’s rota may qualify. Price-setting, control and business risk are relevant, but none decides the question alone. See our employment status guide.

Who do you claim against?

Check contracts, invoices and assignment paperwork for the businesses’ legal names. A brand or manager’s name may not identify the right respondent. For a direct engagement that meets the employment test, claim against the engager.

If another organisation employs you and supplies you to a hirer under the relevant contract, section 41 protects you against that hirer, the “principal”. It prohibits discriminatory terms, removal from work, harassment and victimisation. Both principal and employer have reasonable-adjustment duties. A hotel cannot answer a complaint about its own conduct with “take it up with the agency”.

Your own company may meet the employment-and-supply conditions, but invoicing through it proves neither protection nor its absence. Have the contract chain checked.

The agency is not automatically liable for a site supervisor’s conduct. It may be liable for its own decisions, such as refusing placements because you are pregnant. If both organisations may have acted unlawfully, get advice about naming both. See our agency worker guide.

What counts as discrimination

The nine protected characteristics are age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. Sexual harassment is conduct, not a tenth characteristic.

These examples show different legal wrongs:

• Direct discrimination includes refusing a qualifying rider bookings because he is gay. Ending a protected engagement because of pregnancy can also be unlawful.
• Indirect discrimination involves a rule disadvantaging a protected group that cannot be objectively justified. A blanket no-headwear rule may disadvantage Sikh workers. Applying it to everyone does not settle its lawfulness.
• Harassment is unwanted conduct related to a relevant characteristic that violates dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment. Racist abuse of a kitchen porter can qualify. Sexual harassment has a separate definition. Marriage/civil partnership and pregnancy/maternity are excluded from the standalone characteristic-related harassment definition, though other protections may apply.
• Victimisation is a detriment because of a protected act, such as alleging discrimination or supporting a complaint. Cutting a cleaner’s shifts because she reported racist abuse can qualify. Knowingly false allegations made in bad faith are excluded.

Disability protection includes reasonable adjustments and protection against unjustified unfavourable treatment arising from disability. A chef whose condition affects start times may need a rota adjustment. Reasonableness and the employer’s knowledge can matter. Put your difficulty and proposed change in writing.

Discrimination protection has no service requirement. Losing bookings can be challenged without an unfair dismissal claim. Bullying unrelated to discrimination is not automatically an Equality Act claim.

Right-to-work checks and discrimination

A right-to-work check is not a licence to discriminate. The revised statutory Code of practice on avoiding unlawful discrimination during right-to-work checks took effect on 1 October 2026, replacing the version effective from 6 April 2022. This is already in force, not a proposed change. If you believe a check was discriminatory, save the requests for documents, messages and any refusal of work alongside your contract and assignment records.

The regulations bringing the Code into force, S.I. 2026/700, also prescribe right-to-work checking conditions for contracting chains and online matching services. Those conditions concern avoiding illegal-working penalties. They do not, by themselves, establish your discrimination protection or who you can claim against. For that, check the personal-work and supplied-worker routes above.

What to do today

You do not have to resolve the complaint internally before protecting your tribunal deadline. An unanswered email is not a reason to wait.

1. Record what happened. Note dates, words used and witnesses. Save rotas, booking-app messages and evidence of lost income. A note on your phone tonight beats trying to remember months later.
2. Get backup. Contact your union rep or legal service. UNISON and GMB organise in care; Unite and GMB in hospitality and logistics; IWGB among some couriers, drivers and cleaners. Check coverage. Joining does not guarantee help with an existing dispute. Acas, Citizens Advice and law centres are other routes. See Can gig workers join a union?
3. Complain in writing if safe. Explain what happened, why you believe it was discrimination and what you want. For example, “My bookings stopped after I reported racist comments. Please explain and preserve the rota records.” Keep a copy. An unsuccessful original complaint does not by itself defeat victimisation protection.
4. Notify Acas before the deadline. Notification is normally required; settlement talks are voluntary. Early conciliation can last up to 12 weeks. Notify in time to obtain the deadline protection. See our complaint guide.
5. Submit the ET1 in time. The tribunal form is separate from Acas notification. Check respondents’ legal names and certificate requirements. There is no issue fee. Our tribunal guide explains the process.

Ask for a reporting route that includes contractors

Ask for the site’s policy, a named contact and a route to report a supervisor without going through them. Check whether contractors can use it and who investigates between agency and hirer. Request action, such as restoring shifts or making an adjustment. Exclusion from a policy does not remove statutory rights. Nor does a polished policy prove the firm followed it. See our sexual harassment guide.

Which deadline applies to your claim?

As at 1 October 2026, the ordinary discrimination time limit in Great Britain is six months less a day from the act complained of. The extension is in force under S.I. 2026/954. It is not a fresh six months for every existing complaint.

If the relevant act occurred before 1 October 2026, the old limit of three months less a day still applies. For conduct extending over a period, the relevant date is the end of that period. A later incident does not automatically revive an earlier, separate act. Failure to make an adjustment has its own timing rules. Get advice rather than treating every event as one continuing claim.

What you can win

Under section 124, a tribunal can declare your rights, award compensation and recommend steps to reduce the adverse effect on you. Compensation can cover proven financial loss and injury to feelings, with no statutory cap.

Under the burden-of-proof rule, facts supporting an inference of discrimination without another explanation require the respondent to prove it did not discriminate. An allegation alone is insufficient. Messages and changed explanations can matter.

A firm can be liable for staff acting in the course of employment. Section 109 gives it a defence if it proves it took all reasonable preventive steps. The individual responsible may also be liable.

Representation may cost money, and costs awards are possible in limited circumstances. Ask about free advice and union support. If a respondent does not pay an award, enforcement may be necessary. A judgment is not money in your account.

Harassment on a client’s site

A qualifying supplied worker can use section 41 against harassment by the principal, including conduct for which it is responsible. Abuse by a customer or resident’s relative does not, by itself, make the employer liable for that outsider’s conduct under current employment discrimination law.

The employer’s response may itself be discriminatory. Since 26 October 2024, employers must also take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment, including third-party risks. The EHRC can enforce that duty; a compensation uplift can follow a breach where a sexual harassment claim succeeds. Do not wait for reform to report abuse.

What is in force, and what is still coming?

The deadline extension is already in force. Acas lists two harassment reforms as scheduled for 30 October 2026, not current rights on this guide’s review date.

The wider ban on non-disclosure clauses covering work-related harassment or discrimination is scheduled for September 2027, subject to parliamentary processes. It is not yet in force. Get advice before signing a settlement or confidentiality clause.

Where this guide applies

The Equality Act employment rules discussed here apply in England, Wales and Scotland. Northern Ireland has separate discrimination legislation and tribunal rules, with early conciliation through the Labour Relations Agency rather than Acas. Do not use the Great Britain six-month deadline for a Northern Ireland claim. Contact the LRA or Equality Commission for Northern Ireland for local advice. See Employment law in Northern Ireland: what differs?