Victoria Bell is managing associate and Gerri Hurst, Carly Mather and Andrew Nealey are associates and Eleanor Cittern is a trainee solicitor at Addleshaw Goddard LLP.
The current wording of the Equality Act 2010 is sufficient to allow caste discrimination claims to be brought, found the employment tribunal in this non-binding first-instance case.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has rejected a council's claim that it was required by an enactment to place a cap on the redundancy pay of an older worker who had reached civil service pension age.
The Court of Appeal has held that, while an occupational health report can assist employers in deciding whether or not an employee is disabled, it is up to the employer itself to make the final judgment as to whether or not the employee is covered by disability discrimination legislation. Employers must not simply "rubber stamp" the medical adviser's opinion.
This employment tribunal held that the belief in "democratic socialism" held by a dismissed jobcentre worker who has long been politically active with the Labour Party is a "philosophical belief" under the Equality Act 2010.
The Court of Appeal has found that the employment tribunal was correct to reject the indirect religion or belief discrimination claim brought by a Christian care worker who resigned after a dispute with her employer over her refusal to work on Sundays.
The Supreme Court has held that the owners of a bed and breakfast, whose religious beliefs include that sexual relations outside heterosexual marriage are sinful, could not justify their refusal to give civil partners a room with a double bed, in this important discrimination case on the conflict between sexual orientation laws and the right to manifest religious beliefs.
Colin Makin, Krishna Santra, Linda Quinn and Sandra Martins are senior associates and Melissa Powys-Rodrigues is an associate at Colman Coyle Solicitors. They round up the latest rulings.
This successful race discrimination claim by an Irish worker is a prime example of why employers are unlikely to be able to argue in an employment tribunal that offensive comments about a protected characteristic were "just banter".
A "Wiccan" who claimed that she was mocked and later dismissed after switching her shifts to celebrate All Hallows' Eve has won a religion or belief discrimination claim, in what may be the first successful case of its kind in UK employment law.