Equality, diversity and human rights
In Noor v Telewest Communications (South East) Ltd a London South employment tribunal (Chair: M E Stacey) holds that a female sales representative, the only woman in a sales force of around 70 employees, was subjected to a number of incidents of sexual harassment over a 12-month period, including the posting of female pin-ups in her office and the making of sexist comments about her by a manager in front of her colleagues.
An employee was not barred from claiming compensation under the Sex Discrimination Act by reason of the fact that her contract of employment was allegedly tainted by illegality, holds the Court of Appeal in Hall v Woolston Hall Leisure Ltd.
An employer is not obliged to justify a variation in pay or conditions between a woman and men employed on like work, work rated as equivalent or work of equal value if the employer has proved the absence of direct or indirect sex discrimination, holds the House of Lords in Glasgow City Council and others v Marshall and others.
A female manager who resigned after being ordered home to change from her trouser suit into a skirt, was unlawfully discriminated against on grounds of sex, holds a Birmingham employment tribunal (Chair: A J McCarry) in Owen v the Professional Golf Association.
A person who "knowingly aids" another to do an unlawful act contrary to the Race Relations Act 1976 is to be treated as doing such an act himself or herself. In this context, the word "aids" must be construed in accordance with its natural and ordinary meaning, which is to help or assist another who is the prime mover, holds the Court of Appeal in Anyanwu and another v (1) South Bank Students' Union (2) South Bank University.
In Lewen v Denda, the European Court of Justice rules that, where a bonus that is paid voluntarily as an exceptional allowance at Christmas is awarded retroactively as pay for work done, an employer is precluded by Article 141 of the Treaty of Rome from excluding female workers on parental leave entirely from the benefit of the bonus, without taking account of the work done. But an employer may lawfully refuse to pay such a bonus to a woman on parental leave where that payment is subject only to her being in active employment.
An employer contravened the principle of equal pay for equal work contained in Article 141 of the Treaty of Rome when it paid a part-time employee who attended a full-time union training course her normal part-time pay rather than payment for the hours actually spent attending the course, holds the EAT in Davies v Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council.
Where there is an unbroken chain of contracts between an individual and an end user, the end user should be regarded as the "principal" within the meaning of the contract-worker provisions contained in s.12 of the Disability Discrimination Act, the EAT holds in MHC Consulting Services Ltd v Tansell and others.
In Vicary v British Telecommunications plc, the EAT holds that an employment tribunal's conclusion that a woman did not have a disability for the purposes of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 was perverse.
In Davies v Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) uses EC equal pay law to rule that an employer has to pay a trade union health and safety representative for all five days of a training course, even though it employs her on a part-time basis.
Employment law cases: HR and legal information and guidance relating to equality, diversity and human rights.