Equality, diversity and human rights
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that an employee could not claim for harassment on the ground of disability where he had not proved, but merely asserted, that he has a disability.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has upheld an employment tribunal decision that the claimant's assertion that his beliefs required him to take a block of five weeks' leave to attend religious festivals was not genuine.
This employment tribunal held, in White v Propharma Group MIS Ltd, that the employer had not indirectly discriminated against a female employee by requiring her to remove potential interruptions while working at home by arranging childcare.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has held that the dismissal of a teacher for showing an 18-rated film to a class of vulnerable 15- and 16-year-olds amounted to unfavourable treatment arising from his disability and was not justified.
We round up three recent European Court of Justice (ECJ) judgments about discrimination. The ECJ has recently considered: temporary incapacity caused by a workplace accident in Barcelona; the recruitment age limit for Basque police officers; and survivors' pensions for same-sex partners in Ireland.
In this well-publicised case, easyJet's refusal to limit the shift lengths of two cabin crew who were breastfeeding led to awards for indirect sex discrimination totalling almost £35,000.
In Kratzer v R+V Allgemeine Versicherung AG [2016] IRLR 888 ECJ, the ECJ held that a job applicant who is not genuinely seeking employment but whose sole purpose is to seek compensation for alleged discrimination with regard to his or her application is not protected by EU discrimination law.
This employment tribunal held that a bus company's decision to dismiss a disabled employee amounted to discrimination arising from disability. The justification defence failed because the tribunal found that there were a number of other options available that would have amounted to a less discriminatory means of achieving a safe place of work.
In Appleby v The Governing Body of Colburn Community Primary School and another EAT/0334/15, the EAT upheld an employment tribunal decision that it was not a breach of disability discrimination laws to require a teacher with narcolepsy and mental health problems to be at work for 8.45am, when she had asked for 15 minutes' leeway to arrive by 9am.
In Geller and another v Yeshurun Hebrew Congregation EAT/0190/15, the EAT held that, in cases where direct discrimination is not inherent in the act complained of, a tribunal must enquire further into the motivation, conscious or unconscious, of the alleged discriminator.
Employment law cases: HR and legal information and guidance relating to equality, diversity and human rights.