The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has held that a height restriction for applicants to the Greek police academy cannot be justified and constitutes indirect sex discrimination.
The Court of Appeal has held that the decision to reduce officer head count "to the fullest extent" by forcibly retiring police officers with 30 years' service was justified.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has dismissed police officers' claims for indirect discrimination on the ground of age. Police forces, to make costs savings, applied the A19 rule in the Police Pensions Regulations 1987 to retire officers who had accrued a certain minimum pension entitlement that could be achieved only after 30 years' service.
An employment tribunal has held that a requirement that police firearms officers with one year away from work attend an intensive firearms training course on their return indirectly discriminated against a female police officer returning from maternity leave.
An employment tribunal has found that Greater Manchester Police indirectly discriminated against a single-parent police officer who worked term time only when it introduced a requirement that she work nine days during school holidays. The case is a stark reminder to public-sector organisations reviewing flexible working arrangements as a way to cut costs to beware of the potential for discrimination.
The employment tribunal held that a police worker's "profound belief in the proper and efficient use of public money in the public sector" is not a "philosophical belief" under the Equality Act 2010.
In DLA Piper's latest case report, the Employment Appeal Tribunal held that a police officer who made protected disclosures was dismissed after taking matters into his own hands and becoming difficult to manage because he was not satisfied with the action taken following the concerns that he had raised, and that he was not dismissed for blowing the whistle.
In this age discrimination case, the police successfully defended a claim by a police officer who left after being chosen for redeployment, but not before the employment tribunal described its cost-cutting exercise as "shambolic" and "to some degree incompetent".
This week's case of the week, provided by DLA Piper, covers the dismissal of a police worker who withheld information from the police on his criminal brother.
This unusual case against the Metropolitan Police involves direct discrimination against a dog handler who was required to return a police dog during maternity leave, which damaged her career progression and denied her opportunities for overtime.