Corps Together – Marriage and Civil Partnership

Why is marriage and civil partnership a protected characteristic?

The main difference between the two legal relationships is that a marriage is formed by vows and can be performed in a religious ceremony before signing a marriage certificate, whereas a civil partnership is formed by signing a civil partnership certificate.

Both are available to same-sex couples and opposite-sex couples and both legal unions are treated as fundamentally the same. No one should be treated differently at work because you are married or in a civil partnership.

Types of Discrimination

Direct discrimination, where you are treated worse than other workers in your workplace because you are married or in a civil partnership. For example, a female interviewee does not get a night shift job, after informing the recruiters that she is about to get married, and will not be as committed to the job, as they feel that she will have new duties as a wife and that a married woman should be at home.
Indirect discrimination is when an employer has a policy or way of working that puts people who are married or in a civil partnership at a disadvantage.

What does the Equality Act says about marriage and civil partnership?

The Equality Act says you must not be discriminated against because:

you are married or in a civil partnership.
marriage and civil partnership means someone who is legally married or in a civil partnership. Marriage and civil partnership can either be between a man and a woman, or between partners of the same sex.
You are not protected by this characteristics if you are, single, living with someone as a couple neither married nor civil partners, engaged to be married but not married, or if you are divorced or a person whose civil partnership has been dissolved

Our Objectives

To be a more inclusive environment that welcomes and celebrates people who are married or in civil partnerships
To mitigate any bias from not supporting people entering into marriage and civil partnership
To tackle any barriers to progression for colleagues who are in or may go into marriage or civil partnerships

Talk to us…

The sole purpose of Corps Together is to engage with you, our colleagues, to understand the things that matter most and tailor our activities to help and support.

We would love to hear from you, so please get in touch to share knowledge, experiences, and new ideas freely.

You can also contact the team to discuss any issues or concerns you have regarding equality, diversity, and inclusion within our company.