Employment rights for people with caring responsibilities: protection by association
In today’s workforce, many employees balance their professional role with significant caring responsibilities, including caring for a disabled child. UK employment law offers important protections for these workers, not only because they are carers, but because of their association with a disabled person.
At the heart of this protection is the Equality Act 2010. While “carer” is not itself a protected characteristic, the Act expressly protects employees from discrimination by association. This means an employee must not be treated less favourably because they are connected to someone with a protected characteristic, such as disability. The leading case of Coleman v Attridge Law established that parents of disabled children are protected even though they are not disabled themselves. In 2008 a British woman won a landmark legal ruling which gives carers the same right against employment discrimination as disabled people. The European court of Justice ruled that primary careers are entitled to the same Treatment as disabled people.
Discrimination by association can arise in several ways. Direct discrimination occurs where an employee is treated worse because they are a parent of a disabled child, for example being denied promotion because of assumptions about their availability. Indirect discrimination may occur where a workplace policy, such as inflexible working hours, places carers at a particular disadvantage and cannot be objectively justified.
The Equality Act also prohibits harassment. Harassment is unwanted conduct related to a protected characteristic that violates a person’s dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment. Crucially, intent is irrelevant. A colleague making insulting or belittling comments about an employee being a parent of a disabled child, even “out of ignorance”, can amount to unlawful harassment. This applies even in settings that are meant to be supportive, such as an internal carers’ support group at work. Employers are legally responsible for harassment by colleagues unless they can show they took all reasonable steps to prevent it. I am sure I am not alone in having been harassed by a colleague in An act of discrimination by association as the carer of a disabled child. And your employer is legally responsible if they did not take all reasonable steps to prevent it.
Beyond discrimination law, carers benefit from additional statutory rights. Under the Employment Rights Act 1996, employees have the right to take reasonable unpaid time off to deal with emergencies involving dependants, including disabled children. The right to request flexible working, strengthened in 2024, applies from day one of employment and is particularly important for carers managing medical appointments or care arrangements.
More recently, the Carer’s Leave Act 2023 introduced a new right to one week of unpaid carer’s leave per year for employees caring for a dependant with a long-term care need. Part one creates a statutory entitlement to carers leave. This right is separate from other leave entitlements and must not result in any detriment.
For employers, the message is clear. Supporting carers is not simply a matter of good practice or corporate culture. It is a legal obligation. For employees, understanding these rights can be empowering. Being “at work as a parent of a disabled child” should never mean tolerating discrimination, exclusion or insult. The law is firmly on the side of dignity, respect and equal treatment.
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