Direct discrimination occurs when someone is treated less favourably than another person because of a protected characteristic they have or are thought to have or because they associate with someone who has a protected characteristic.

Indirect discrimination can occur when you have a condition, rule, policy or even a practice in your company that applies to everyone but particularly disadvantages people who share a protected characteristic.

A protected characteristic is as defined by The Equality Act 2010. The 9 protected characteristics are: Age Disability Gender Reassignment Marriage and Civil Partnership Pregnancy and Maternity Race Religion or Belief Sex Sexual Orientation

This is direct discrimination against someone because they associate with another person who possesses a protected characteristic.

This is direct discrimination against an individual because others think they possess a particular protected characteristic. It applies even if the person does not actually possess that characteristic.

Harassment is unwanted conduct related to a relevant protected characteristic, which has the purpose or effect of violating an individual’s dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for that individual.

Victimisation occurs when an employee is treated badly because they have made or supported a complaint or raised a grievance or because they are suspected of doing so.

Yes, for the sake of good practice, when making decisions about working patterns you should consider all types of discrimination. For example if you decide to fix the nights your night staff work and allocate Friday and Saturday nights to one employee because the other employee wants to spend time at the weekends with her husband, that could be discrimination on grounds of marital status.