Religious discrimination

We all deserve to have our beliefs respected at work. But too many workers still face discrimination because of their religious beliefs.

It’s against the law for an employer to treat you worse than your co-workers because of your religion or beliefs. And you should never face harassment or bullying because of your beliefs.

This is true if you’re a member of a major organised religion, if you’re a member of a smaller religion or sect, if you practice collective worship, if you have no religion, or if you have any profound belief that affects your way of life.

Your employer shouldn’t indirectly discriminate either, by having requirements that are harder for you to meet than for people with other religious beliefs, unless they can be objectively justified. And they can’t discriminate against you because they wrongly believe you’re a member of a certain religion.

If you feel you’re experiencing race discrimination, you can take action to enforce your rights.

Very often, the best way to solve problems is to join with co-workers and try to reach agreement with your employer on how to make the workplace fairer for everyone.

This could be effective, for example, if you wanted your employer to create a prayer space in your workplace.

Are you a rep? You can find more practical advice on a range of workplace issues in our support for reps section