Equality, diversity and human rights
In St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council v Derbyshire and others, the EAT holds that the tribunal did not err in law in finding that the council had victimised catering staff who had presented equal pay claims.
In Madden v Preferred Technical Group Cha Ltd and another, the Court of Appeal holds that the tribunal did not misdirect itself by stating that conscious or deliberate motivation was immaterial in cases of discrimination.
In Scott v Commissioners of Inland Revenue the Court of Appeal holds that an employment tribunal erred in awarding only £15,000 in respect of the psychiatric injury caused to an employee by the way in which his employer dealt with allegations of sexual harassment made against him by a work colleague.
In V v Addey & Stanhope School, the Court of Appeal holds that the extent of the employee's illegal and criminal conduct was such that it prevented him from pursuing a race discrimination claim.
In Nottinghamshire County Council v Meikle [2004] IRLR 703 CA, the Court of Appeal held that putting an employee who was off sick for a disability-related reason on to half pay after a period of full pay was unjustified less favourable treatment where the employer had failed to make reasonable adjustments, which, had they been made, would have resulted in the employee's returning to work before she became liable to have her sick pay reduced.
In Archibald v Fife Council, the House of Lords holds that an employment tribunal misconstrued the scope of the employer's duty to take reasonable steps to prevent any of its arrangements from placing a disabled employee at a substantial disadvantage in comparison with people who are not disabled.
In X v Y [2004] IRLR 625 CA, the Court of Appeal held that the applicant had been fairly dismissed from his job working with youth offenders after he had been cautioned for gross indecency with another man in a public toilet and failed to disclose the fact that he had committed a criminal offence to his employers.
In Merino Gomez v Continental Industrias del Caucho SA, the European Court of Justice holds that pregnant workers have a dual entitlement to annual leave and maternity leave: pregnant workers must be able to take their annual leave during a period other than their period of maternity leave.
In A v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police and another, the House of Lords holds that refusing to employ a post-operative male-to-female transsexual was an act of unlawful discrimination.
Voluntary workers were not "employees" as defined in s.68 of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, holds the EAT in South East Sheffield Citizens Advice Bureau v Grayson (17 November 2003).
Employment law cases: HR and legal information and guidance relating to equality, diversity and human rights.