LRD guides and handbook June 2016

Law at Work 2016

Chapter 7

Access to promotion and job changes 


[ch 7: page 229]

Employers must ensure employees have equal access to jobs once in the workplace, including access to promotion. 


A practice that makes it more difficult for a member of a protected group to apply for the position will be unlawful indirect discrimination unless it can be objectively justified. For a good example, see Homer v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police [2012] UKSC 150. In this case, a new requirement for all senior police legal advisers to hold a law degree discriminated against a police officer who was close to retirement age and did not have enough working years left in which to acquire the degree.