What equality law means - Birmingham Disability Resource Centre

would have been treated better by the employer. This is
a ‘hypothetical’ comparator.
contract worker
data protection
direct discrimination
disability
disabled person
disadvantage
discrimination arising from
disability
Under the Equality Act, this has a special meaning. It
means a person who is sent by their employer to do
work for someone else (the ‘principal’), under a contract
between the employer and the principal. For example, a
person employed by an agency to work for someone
else (‘an end-user’) or a person employed by a
privatised company to work on contracted out services
for a public authority, may be a contract worker. The
Equality Act makes it unlawful for the principal to
discriminate against the contract worker.
Safeguards concerning personal data are provided for
by statute, mainly the Data Protection Act 1998.
Less favourable treatment of a person compared with
another person because of a protected characteristic.
This may be their own protected characteristic, or a
protected characteristic of someone else, eg someone
with whom they are associated. It is also direct
discrimination to treat someone less favourably
because the employer wrongly perceives them to have
a protected characteristic.
A person has a disability if they have a physical or
mental impairment which has a substantial and longterm
adverse effect on that person's ability to carry out
normal day-to-day activities.
Someone who has a physical or mental impairment that
has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their
ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.
A detriment or impediment – something that the
individual affected might reasonably consider changes
their position for the worse.
When a person is treated unfavourably because of
something arising in consequence of their disability, eg
an employer dismisses a worker because of the length
of time they have been on sick leave. The reason the
worker has been off sick is because of their disability. If
it is objectively justifiable to treat a person
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