Early Conciliation and the UK Tribunal Path
What counts as discrimination at work under UK law
Discrimination claims in England, Wales and Scotland are brought under the Equality Act 2010, which protects nine protected characteristics: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation. A claim can arise from a single act or from a pattern of behaviour, and it does not need to be deliberate — a policy that puts one group at a disadvantage can be unlawful even if nobody intended harm.
Most workplace complaints fall into four categories. Direct discrimination means treating someone worse because of a protected characteristic. Indirect discrimination covers rules that apply to everyone but disadvantage one group, such as a shift pattern that effectively excludes parents or a strength test that rules out most women without being genuinely necessary for the job. Harassment is unwanted conduct that violates dignity or creates an intimidating environment, and victimisation protects anyone who has raised a complaint or supported someone else's. The distinction matters because the evidence and defences differ sharply between them.
Readers often search for lawyers for discrimination in the workplace abroad, and the same questions recur: how long do I have, what will it cost, and is my case strong enough. In the UK the answers are governed by the tribunal system rather than a jury, which shapes strategy from the first letter.
The three-month clock and ACAS early conciliation
You generally have three months less one day from the act complained of — or, for a continuing course of conduct, from the last act — to start a claim. That deadline is strict. Before lodging an ET1 claim form you must notify ACAS, which then offers early conciliation. The conciliation period pauses the clock, usually for up to six weeks, and gives both sides a chance to settle without a hearing. Skipping that step means the tribunal will reject the claim.
Failure to follow the ACAS Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures can lead to an uplift of up to 25 per cent on compensation where the employer is at fault. Raising a written grievance before you leave is therefore not merely procedural box-ticking: it creates a paper trail and often triggers the employer's own legal team to engage.
Costs, fees and what representation really involves
Since the Supreme Court ruling that struck down the old tribunal fees, it costs nothing to issue a claim. That has not made representation free. Specialist employment solicitors typically charge between £180 and £400 an hour plus VAT, and a straightforward unfair dismissal or discrimination case taken to a final hearing commonly costs £8,000 to £25,000 if billed hourly. Many firms now offer fixed fees for stages — a claim assessment, drafting the ET1, or handling a preliminary hearing — which makes budgeting far easier.
Alternative funding is worth asking about. Some solicitors work under damages-based agreements, taking a percentage of any award, and a small number of cases attract legal expenses insurance attached to household policies or union membership. Check both before paying privately. Employers, by contrast, rarely recover their costs from a claimant — costs orders in tribunals are exceptional and usually reserved for unreasonable conduct.
Compensation itself is not capped for discrimination. Awards cover lost earnings, injury to feelings under the Vento bands (currently from around £1,200 to £60,000 for the most serious cases) and any personal injury element, though tribunals scrutinise mitigation and can reduce awards for contributory fault.
Building evidence that a tribunal will accept
Discrimination is rarely documented in a single email. What persuades a tribunal is a chronology: dates, witnesses, contemporaneous notes, and evidence of how colleagues in a comparable position were treated. Keep a dated diary of incidents, save relevant messages in a personal format before your work account is closed, and identify anyone who saw or heard what happened. Collecting the right documents early, particularly the grievance correspondence and any occupational health reports, often decides whether a claim is viable.
The burden of proof is helpful here. Once you establish facts from which discrimination could be inferred, the burden shifts to the employer to prove it did not discriminate. That is why careful fact-gathering at the outset carries more weight than an emotive account later.
Choosing the right adviser
Employment law is a distinct specialism, and not every high street firm handles tribunal work. Ask three questions of any solicitor: how many discrimination claims they have taken to a final hearing in the past two years, whether they will act on a fixed fee or damages-based agreement, and who will actually run the case day to day. An associate with a caseload of thirty files behaves very differently from a partner with ten.
Geography matters less than it once did — video hearings and remote consultations mean a claimant in Hull can instruct a specialist in Leeds or London without difficulty — but local knowledge of a tribunal's listing habits and of regional employers still helps. If your case involves an overseas element, such as an employer based abroad or a contract governed by foreign law, confirm the firm has genuine cross-border experience rather than assuming it does.
Finally, treat the initial consultation as a two-way assessment. A good adviser will tell you candidly when a claim is weak, when settlement is likely, and what a realistic outcome looks like — and will put the fee arrangement in writing before any work begins.