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Sex discrimination
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.
In Stubbs v (1) Chief Constable of Lincolnshire Police and (2) Walker a Nottingham employment tribunal (Chair: D R Sneath) reconvenes to award compensation of £182,000, including £41,500 for injury to feelings and injury to health to a former detective retired from the police force on ill-health grounds following its ruling that she had been subject to a lengthy period of sexual harassment and discrimination by her line manager.
A pregnant employee of a ferry company, who was suspended from working on board ship in accordance with Regulations precluding those with specified medical conditions, including pregnancy, from working at sea, suffered direct sex discrimination when she did not receive full pay during the period of her suspension, holds the EAT in P&O European Ferries (Dover) Ltd and another v Iverson.
In Abbey National plc v Formoso, the EAT rejects an employment tribunal's "reasonable employer" approach to calculating the financial loss flowing from a discriminatory dismissal.
The Chief Constable of the constabulary to which police officers were originally appointed remained vicariously liable for acts of sex discrimination committed by his officers while they were on secondment to branches of the Regional Crime Squad, holds the EAT in Chief Constable of the Lincolnshire Constabulary v Stubbs and others.
The EC Equal Treatment Directive requires member states to provide judicial protection for those whose former employers react to their bringing claims of sex discrimination against them during their employment by refusing their requests for a reference, rules the European Court of Justice in Coote v Granada Hospitality Ltd.
In London Underground Ltd v Edwards (No.2), the Court of Appeal holds that a female train driver who was unable to comply with new rostering arrangements imposed by her employer was indirectly discriminated against on the ground of her sex.
In Stubbs v Chief Constable Lincolnshire Police and others a Nottingham industrial tribunal (Chair: D R Sneath) holds Lincolnshire's chief constable liable for the unlawful acts of a male police officer who sexually harassed a female colleague in public houses after work.
A "requirement or condition" applied by an employer does not have to constitute an absolute bar in order for it to be challenged as amounting to indirect sex discrimination, holds the EAT in Falkirk Council and others v Whyte and others.
In R v Secretary of State for Employment ex parte Seymour-Smith and Perez (13 March 1997) EOR73A, the House of Lords refers questions to the European Court of Justice relating to whether the increase in the qualifying period for bringing a complaint of unfair dismissal from one to two years indirectly discriminated against women contrary to European Community law.
Employment law cases: HR and legal information and guidance relating to sex discrimination.