Are you gender-fluid and wondering whether discrimination laws protect you at work? 
You may know that gender reassignment is a protected characteristic, meaning that trans people must be treated fairly at work.
If you’re non-binary or gender-fluid, you may not be undergoing any medical treatment, so you might wonder whether you’re covered by the same protection.
The answer is likely to be yes, as explained in the case of Rose Taylor who was recently awarded £180,000 to make up for harassment, discrimination and constructive dismissal she suffered at work.
What’s the story
Rose first worked for Jaguar Land Rover Ltd as an agency worker in 1998, and joined as a full-time engineer in 2000. In 2017, she told managers she was transitioning from male to female and changing her name, but had no intention of surgery.
After Rose started wearing female clothing to work two days a week, she suffered numerous instances of mistreatment. For example, colleagues openly ridiculed her appearance, referred to her as “it”, told her she had “cracking legs”, and asked whether she was going to “have her bits chopped off”. Also, it was suggested that she use the disabled toilet.
This went on for a prolonged period of time. Rose raised concerns, but her employer treated it as a disciplinary issue and wouldn’t do anything because she refused to name names in case it made the situation worse.
She suffered stress, anxiety and distress to the extent that she was self-harming and felt suicidal. She was referred to Occupational Health – however, this treated her as the ‘victim’ and made no difference to the unacceptable behaviour.
Because nothing was done about the mistreatment, Rose felt so helpless that she resigned in June 2018, and made claims of discrimination, harassment and constructive dismissal.
What happened at the tribunal
The Equality Act 2010 states:
“A person has the protected characteristic of gender reassignment if the person is undergoing or has undergone a process (or part of a process) for the purpose of reassigning the person’s sex by changing the physiological or other attributes of sex.”
Jaguar argued that Rose was not within this protected characteristic. However, the Birmingham Employment Tribunal held that she was protected because she was “on a journey of transition” which does not necessitate any medical process.
Rose was awarded £180,000.
The amount was increased by 20% because her employer didn’t follow the ACAS Code of Practice when dealing with Rose’s complaint.
What this means to you
The Equality Act is there to protect you. Whoever you are, your dignity should be respected. You should not be subjected to name-calling in the workplace, for example, nor treated unfavourably.
Your employer has a legal responsibility to support and train their managers and staff about diversity and inclusion policies. In a big company like JLR, there should be support for LGBT+ employees, and they should perhaps designate some toilets as gender-neutral.
What’s more, employers should follow the ACAS Code of Practice when dealing with grievances. If they don’t, they risk having to pay higher penalties.
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