Protected characteristics

The scheme of the EA 10 is based around a set of “protected characteristics”: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or philosophical belief, sex or gender, and sexual orientation.

In Northern Ireland, there is an extra protected characteristic, that of political opinion, enforced by the Fair Employment Tribunal. In the UK, some political opinions are covered by the protected characteristic of “philosophical belief” (see page 23).

Protected characteristics are explained in Chapter 2.