Gender Reassignment Discrimination Solicitors

Examples of gender reassignment discrimination

Gender reassignment discrimination can arise in many different scenarios within the workplace. We’ve listed some examples below:

• Use of single-sex facilities – some workplaces will have separate toilets for men and women, and may refuse a transgender person entry to the toilet for which they identify. Generally someone who is going through gender reassignment should be allowed to use the toilet or facilities for the gender with which they identify, and refusing to accept this would be classed as gender reassignment discrimination.
• Absence from work – if an employer treats a transgender person less favourably because they request time off work to receive treatment for gender reassignment, this could amount to gender reassignment discrimination.
• Deliberate use of incorrect pronouns – if someone is identifying as the opposite gender while they go through the process of reassignment, they may wish to be addressed by the pronouns that align with their new gender. An example of gender reassignment discrimination would be if other employees or the employer deliberately refused to acknowledge this, and made discriminatory remarks about it.

The four types of discriminatory behaviour

It’s important to consider the four discriminatory behaviours, as outlined under the Equality Act 2010:

• Direct discrimination: if your employer treats you worse than they treat or would treat other employees because you are going through gender reassignment. For example, if you are passed over for a promotion because of your gender reassignment.
• Indirect discrimination: an example of this would be if your workplace has a policy that puts you at a disadvantage because of your gender reassignment. For example, if you have to wear certain uniform to carry out your role and it differs between genders.
• Victimisation: you might experience victimisation if, for example, you’ve made a complaint or raised a grievance in the workplace about fellow colleagues for their discriminatory behaviour towards you because of your gender reassignment.
• Harassment: if some colleagues have made discriminatory comments about your gender reassignment, and these comments made you feel degraded, humiliated and upset, you may have experienced harassment.

Gender reassignment discrimination solicitors

If you have experienced gender reassignment discrimination in the workplace, then we recommend you act quickly. The law states that from 1st October 2026 an employee has six months, less one day, from the date of the discriminatory act to start a complaint at an employment tribunal (only if the act took place from that date – if the act took place before 1st October 2026, the time limit is only three months less one day). We recommend you contact our gender reassignment discrimination solicitors as soon as possible, to avoid losing out on valuable time given that the ACAS process (more below) can be timely.

The ACAS Process

Any employee who wishes to bring a claim for gender reassignment discrimination at work needs to submit details of their claim to the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS), so that they can establish whether the employer will agree to ‘early conciliation’. Depending on your circumstances, we may be able to help you with this.