Guide · Discrimination & Dispute Resolution
Discrimination, ACAS conciliation and tribunal claims, explained
If you have been treated unfairly because of who you are, or you are heading toward an Employment Tribunal, the process can feel opaque and intimidating. This guide explains the Equality Act 2010, the mandatory ACAS Early Conciliation step, and how tribunal claims are prepared, and how Zhan Associates supports you through each stage.
Is what happened to me discrimination, and what can I do about it?
Short answer Possibly. It turns on why you were treated that way.
It may be, if the treatment was because of a protected characteristic such as age, disability, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, or pregnancy and maternity. Discrimination can be direct or indirect, and harassment and victimisation are separate wrongs with their own tests. The route runs through ACAS Early Conciliation before a tribunal claim, and the burden of proof shifts to your employer once you show facts from which discrimination could be inferred.
Key rule
Where there are facts from which a tribunal could decide, in the absence of any other explanation, that a person contravened the Equality Act 2010, the tribunal must hold that the contravention occurred unless that person shows they did not contravene it. That is the shifting burden of proof, and it is what makes a documented pattern of treatment so much more valuable than a general sense of unfairness.
Source: Equality Act 2010, s.136, with ss.4, 13, 19, 26 and 27 on the characteristics and the forms of discrimination
Practical guidance: Injury to feelings is awarded by reference to the Vento bands set out in the Presidential Guidance in force at the date the claim is presented
Workplace disputes in England and Wales follow a defined route. Where the problem involves discrimination, the governing law is the Equality Act 2010. Where a dispute is heading to a tribunal, you must first go through ACAS Early Conciliation, and only then can a claim be started on an ET1 form. Each step has its own rules and its own deadlines, and mistakes at any stage can be costly.
Zhan Associates is a specialist workplace defence consultancy. We are not a firm of solicitors and we do not provide reserved legal activities or legal advice. We provide forensic preparation, negotiation strategy, and tribunal document drafting, alongside representation at internal hearings. The sections below explain the three areas people search for most.
Discrimination
The Equality Act 2010
The Equality Act 2010 is the single statute that protects you from discrimination at work. It brings together age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation, known as the protected characteristics. Discrimination linked to any of these can be unlawful.
The Act recognises several forms of discrimination. Direct discrimination is being treated worse because of a protected characteristic. Indirect discrimination is where a policy that applies to everyone puts people who share a characteristic at a particular disadvantage. It also covers harassment, victimisation for raising a complaint, and, for disabled employees, the important duty on employers to make reasonable adjustments. Disability discrimination and reasonable adjustments are among the most searched issues in this area, because employers so often fail to make changes that the law requires.
Discrimination can occur on its own, or alongside a disciplinary process or dismissal, which is where it most often affects the clients we act for. A dismissal that is bound up with a protected characteristic raises the stakes considerably, both in how the case is argued and in the remedy available.
How Zhan Associates helps with Equality Act issues
Where a disciplinary or dismissal has an equality dimension, we build that into your defence from the outset, identifying where a protected characteristic has shaped the employer's treatment of you and where reasonable adjustments were owed and not made. Where the matter proceeds to a tribunal, we draft the claim so each ground is pleaded properly.
- Equality-aware defence. Our Complex Case / Equality Act Overlay adds discrimination analysis to your hearing defence.
- Discrimination claims drafted properly. A Complex Multi-Claim ET1 pleads discrimination, whistleblowing and dismissal grounds each with its own chronology and causation.
Dispute Resolution
ACAS and Early Conciliation
ACAS, the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service, sits at the centre of the tribunal process in England and Wales. Before you can lodge almost any Employment Tribunal claim, you must first notify ACAS and go through Early Conciliation. This is a mandatory step, not an optional one, and it is heavily searched precisely because so many people do not know it comes first.
Early Conciliation gives both sides a free, confidential opportunity to resolve the dispute without a hearing. An ACAS conciliator acts as a neutral go-between. If the matter settles, that is usually the end of it. If it does not, ACAS issues an Early Conciliation certificate, and the unique reference number on that certificate must appear on your ET1 or the tribunal will reject the claim. Importantly, starting Early Conciliation pauses the tribunal time limit clock, which can give you valuable extra time, but the underlying deadlines remain unforgiving and are easy to miscalculate.
How long that pause can last changed recently, and a good deal of published guidance still has the old figure. For notifications made to ACAS on or after 1 December 2025, the conciliation period runs for up to twelve weeks rather than six. Notify before that date and the six-week period still applies, so it is the date you contacted ACAS that decides which one you are on. Twelve weeks is a ceiling rather than a fixed term: ACAS issues the certificate as soon as conciliation is finished, whether it has succeeded or not, and the clock restarts from there. More room to negotiate is genuinely useful, but it is also more time in which a deadline can quietly drift out of sight, which is why the dates are worth tracking formally rather than from memory.
The conciliation period is set by the Employment Tribunals (Early Conciliation: Exemptions and Rules of Procedure) (Amendment) Regulations 2025, SI 2025/1153, in force 1 December 2025, which substituted twelve weeks for six in rule 6(1) of the Schedule to the 2014 Regulations, with a transitional provision at regulation 3. Verified against legislation.gov.uk. Confirm the position at the date you rely on it.
How Zhan Associates helps with ACAS Early Conciliation
Conciliation is a negotiation, and negotiations are won by the side that is prepared. We benchmark a realistic settlement range, prepare your position statement, and manage the process so the conversation is conducted from a position of strength rather than hope, while keeping a close eye on how it affects your tribunal time limits.
- Conciliation, handled properly. Our ACAS Negotiation / Early Conciliation service prepares and manages the process for you.
- Leverage first. A Negotiation Strategy converts the procedural weaknesses in your case into a negotiating position.
Dispute Resolution
ET1 preparation
The ET1 is the form that starts an Employment Tribunal claim. It is far more than an administrative document. It sets out who you are claiming against, what you are claiming, and the facts you rely on, and it frames the whole case that follows. A claim that is poorly drafted, missing a ground, or filed out of time can fail before it is ever heard, regardless of how strong the underlying facts are.
Time limits are the great trap. Most claims must be started within six months less one day of the act complained of where that act falls on or after 1 October 2026 (for conduct extending over a period, the end of that period), and within three months less one day where it falls before that, adjusted in each case for the Early Conciliation period. The particulars of claim must plead each cause of action clearly, and where more than one claim is involved, such as unfair dismissal alongside discrimination and whistleblowing, each needs its own factual chronology and its own analysis of causation. This is skilled drafting, and it is where many self-submitted claims come unstuck.
How Zhan Associates helps with ET1 preparation
We draft ET1 claims at three levels, so the fee matches the complexity of your case. We verify your deadlines first, structure the claim so it is submission-ready, and integrate your ACAS certificate. You are told the fixed fee before any work begins.
- Straightforward claims. Basic ET1 Drafting for a single, clearly defined claim.
- Detailed claims. Standard ET1 + Particulars with a full factual narrative and reviewed schedule of loss.
- Multi-claim cases. Complex Multi-Claim ET1 where discrimination, whistleblowing or constructive dismissal grounds combine.
We prepare and draft. We do not represent you at the tribunal hearing itself. Our tribunal work covers claim drafting, particulars, schedules of loss, ACAS Early Conciliation and preparation. Where a case proceeds to a full hearing we advise on representation options and, where you want it, coordinate handover through our solicitor referral network. Zhan Associates is not a firm of solicitors and does not carry out reserved legal activities.
Common questions
Discrimination and tribunal questions people ask
The Equality Act 2010 protects against discrimination linked to nine protected characteristics: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation. It covers direct and indirect discrimination, harassment, victimisation, and the duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled employees.
Where a disabled employee is put at a substantial disadvantage by a workplace practice, physical feature, or lack of an aid, the employer has a legal duty to make reasonable adjustments to remove that disadvantage. Failure to make them is one of the most common and most searched forms of disability discrimination.
Yes. Early Conciliation through ACAS is a mandatory step before almost any Employment Tribunal claim can be started. ACAS issues a certificate with a unique reference number, and that number must appear on your ET1 or the claim will be rejected.
Yes. Notifying ACAS pauses the tribunal time limit clock, which can give you extra time. However, the underlying deadlines remain strict and the calculation is easy to get wrong, so it is worth having the dates checked carefully.
The ET1 is the form that starts an Employment Tribunal claim. It sets out who you are claiming against, what you are claiming, and the facts you rely on. A claim that is out of time, missing a ground, or poorly pleaded can fail before it is heard, which is why careful drafting matters, especially where several claims combine.
Yes. Our Complex Multi-Claim ET1 service is built for claims that combine grounds such as discrimination, whistleblowing and constructive dismissal, pleading each separately with its own factual chronology and causation analysis. The scope and fixed fee are agreed with you after an initial review.
Discrimination affects the Vento head on one tool and the leverage factors on the other: work out the tribunal figure, or work out a settlement range.
Free tools
Apply this to your own case
Discrimination claims need no qualifying service but they do need Early Conciliation and a claim presented in time. The readiness check covers both. If settlement is in view, the planner explains why the protected conversation rule does not cover a discrimination claim.
Tribunal Claim Readiness Check
Which time limit applies, adjusted for ACAS Early Conciliation; whether you have the qualifying service ordinary unfair dismissal needs either side of 1 January 2027; the claims in view; and the documents in hand.
Check readinessSettlement Position Planner
The terms behind the figure, ranked into must have, would like and can trade; your walk-away point; what a protected conversation does and does not protect; and the conditions a settlement agreement must meet to bind.
Plan the positionFree, with nothing to sign up for. Each runs entirely in your browser: nothing you enter is sent to us or stored on any server. Each gives general information measured against the ACAS Code of Practice dated 11 March 2015, which is the version in force, and the statute it names. None assesses your case and none predicts any outcome.
What commonly goes wrong
- Treating a general sense of unfairness as a claim. The characteristic, the treatment and the link between them each have to be evidenced.
- No contemporaneous record. A dated note made at the time is worth more than a detailed recollection made a year later.
- The wrong comparator, or no comparator at all, in a direct discrimination argument.
- Missing that harassment and victimisation are separate wrongs with their own tests, so a complaint framed only as direct discrimination can leave the stronger claim unpleaded.
- Quoting an injury to feelings band from an out-of-date source. The Vento bands are uprated annually by Presidential Guidance and an undated figure is a stale figure.
- Going into ACAS Early Conciliation without a quantified position, which turns a negotiation about fairness into a negotiation about nothing in particular.
Primary sources
- Equality Act 2010, sections 4, 13, 19, 26, 27 and 136, via legislation.gov.uk
- Presidential Guidance on employment tribunal awards for injury to feelings, the Vento bands, in force at the date of presentation
- Employment Tribunals (Early Conciliation: Exemptions and Rules of Procedure) (Amendment) Regulations 2025, SI 2025/1153, via legislation.gov.uk
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Read the guide →Confidential · Free 15-minute consultation
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