Open discrimination against NON protected characteristic

[Lix]

Our employer openly discriminates by making tattooed employees only fill out detailed time sheets of what they’ve been working on. This runs regardless of whether they’re a Director, a manager, or an assistant…. This goes back to a bad experience the boss had with an tattooed employee in the 80s.

It has been raised with HR who say that as it’s not a protected characteristic, it’s legal.

Theres nothing in our contract about timesheets.

Can anyone shed any light on this, are there any loopholes to get round this? Getting pretty sick of being treated differently.

[ULA]

A vast number of companies have policies about tattoos which restrict them.

In terms of legally there is no protection for employees when it comes to discrimination because of having tattoos. I would say raise a grievance but since I presume when you talk about your employer you are meaning the owner or top person in the company in which case I doubt this would be a productive course of action.

[charitynjw]

Best to have the tatt done in a place that doesn't matter too much.

I had mine done in Luton!

(Only joking, Lutonshire! )

[Lix]

Cheers guys, there's no problem with them on show etc. (we're not a public facing company) The issue is that there are differing admin procedures for employees based on their appearance... and this is lawful?

[Amethyst]

Sadly, yes, as it's not a protected characteristic. You could give ACAS a call and see what their take on it is - http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=1363