Equality, diversity and human rights

New and updated

• Date:

  18 July 2007

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Maternity leave: Right to return to work

  In Blundell v The Governing Body of St Andrew's Catholic Primary School and another EAT/0329/06 the Employment Appeal Tribunal held that a teacher returning to work following maternity leave was not entitled to return to the same class that she had been teaching when her maternity leave began.

• Date:

  11 July 2007

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Disability discrimination: No obligation to continue to pay full sick pay to disabled employee

  In O'Hanlon v Commissioners for Inland Revenue & Customs [2007] IRLR 404 CA, the Court of Appeal held that the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 does not require an employer to continue paying a disabled employee whose entitlement to sick pay has been exhausted by disability-related absence.

• Date:

  11 July 2007

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Victimisation: Employer went beyond what was reasonable

  In St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council v Derbyshire and others [2007] IRLR 504 HL, the House of Lords held that an employer that wrote to a number of equal pay litigants and their colleagues warning of potential job losses if they continued with their claims victimised them contrary to the Sex Discrimination Act 1975.

• Date:

  1 July 2007

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Burden of proof in disability discrimination cases

  The EAT provides guidance on shifting the burden of proof in disability discrimination claims, in Project Management Institute v Latif (10 May 2007).

• Date:

  27 June 2007

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Equal pay: Job evaluation scheme did not have retrospective effect

  In 1) Bainbridge & Ors 2) Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council v 1) Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council 2) Williams EAT/0424/06 & EAT/0031/07 the Employment Appeal Tribunal held that successful equal pay claims confer the right to up to six years' back pay prior to the institution of proceedings.

• Date:

  30 May 2007

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Human rights: Union did not act unlawfully in expelling BNP member

  In Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF) v United Kingdom [2007] IRLR 361, a case of competing rights of association under art. 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights, a trade union's right to expel a member of the BNP because his values conflicted fundamentally with its own outweighed the individual's right to membership of the union.

• Date:

  14 May 2007

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Sex discrimination: Prima facie case requires more than a difference in sex and a difference in treatment

  In Madarassy v Nomura International plc [2007] IRLR 246, the Court of Appeal has held that a "possibility" of discrimination arising only from a difference in gender and a difference in treatment is not, without more, sufficient to support an inference of unlawful discrimination, thereby shifting the burden of proof to the employer.

• Date:

  8 May 2007

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Spence v Intype Libra Ltd

  In Spence v Intype Libra Ltd EAT/0617/06, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has held that a failure to obtain and consult on a medical report before dismissing an employee does not in itself breach the duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled employees.

• Date:

  2 April 2007

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Azmi v Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council

  In Azmi v Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council EAT/0009/07, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has dismissed an appeal against an employment tribunal's ruling that an employee who was dismissed for refusing to remove her veil while teaching had not been discriminated against on the grounds of religion or belief.

• Date:

  1 April 2007

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  EC Directive not properly implemented

  The High Court has found that the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, as amended, does not give full effect to the revised EC Equal Treatment Directive, in Equal Opportunities Commission v Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (12 March 2007).