The right to ask questions about suspected discrimination

[ch 7: pages 75-76]

Individual workers who suspect that they have been the target of sex, pregnancy or maternity discrimination have the right to ask their employer formal questions, which they can do by following guidance issued by Acas – Asking and Responding to questions of discrimination in the workplace.

It is a good idea for union reps to help members in preparing the questions to ask, or they could take advice from a national helpline, such as Maternity Action or Working Families (see Further Information, page 79).

The Acas guidance suggests the following six-step approach:

• set out the questioners and responder’s details;

• identify the protected characteristic asserted – in this case, sex, pregnancy and/or maternity;

• describe what happened;

• explain the type of discrimination experienced;

• explain why you think it was against the law; and

• ask any additional questions.

The Acas guidance says that, although employers are not legally obliged to answer the questions asked, a tribunal can take any failure to answer, or any vague or inconsistent answer, into account when deciding whether discrimination has occurred. The Acas guidance has replaced the formal statutory questionnaire procedure, abolished in April 2014. Unions want the formal questionnaire procedure to be reinstated.