Equality, diversity and human rights

New and updated

• Date:

  2 July 2004

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Transsexual discrimination: Transsexual entitled to recognition of reassigned gender

  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.

• Date:

  1 July 2004

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Volunteers not "employees"

  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).

• Date:

  18 June 2004

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Equal pay: SMP must include pay rise effective after reference period

  In Alabaster v Woolwich plc, the European Court of Justice holds that article 119 (now 141) of the EC Treaty of Rome requires that earnings-related maternity pay must reflect any pay rise awarded between the start of the reference period (upon which the level of the earnings-related maternity pay is based) and the end of the employee's maternity leave.

• Date:

  1 June 2004

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  A good loss: R (Amicus - MSF section) v Secretary of State for Trade and Industry

  The overwhelming majority of discrimination law cases are unsuccessful. If the decision is not one of an employment tribunal, it will be a binding precedent.

• Type:

  Employment law cases

  Case round up: dismissals relating to common law duties

  This week's case round-up from Eversheds, covering dismissals relating to common law duties.

• Date:

  1 June 2004

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Department for Work and Pensions v Thompson

  In Department for Work and Pensions v Thompson [2004] IRLR 348 EAT, the Employment Appeal Tribunal held that a workplace dress code that requires men to wear a collar and tie and women to dress appropriately to a similar standard may not be discriminatory on the grounds of sex.

• Date:

  19 March 2004

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Race discrimination: Recovering compensation for psychiatric damage

  In Laing Ltd v Essa, the Court of Appeal holds that an employee who suffered unlawful race discrimination which caused him psychiatric injury was entitled to recover compensation for that injury provided he could establish that the discrimination caused the damage.

• Date:

  20 February 2004

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Constructive dismissal: Failure to notify pregnant employee of job opportunity was repudiatory breach

  In Visa International Service Association v Paul the EAT holds that an employment tribunal was correct to find that an employee was constructively dismissed when her employer failed to notify her, while she was on maternity leave, of a newly created post arising out of a reorganisation in her department in which the employee was interested, and considered herself well qualified for.

• Date:

  6 February 2004

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Unfair dismissal: Dismissing probation officer for public bondage acts did not violate human rights

  In Pay v Lancashire Probation Service, the EAT holds that a probation officer with specific responsibility for sex offenders, who was publicly engaged in sadomasochistic activities in his spare time, did not have his rights under the European Convention on Human Rights breached when he was dismissed upon discovery of those activities.

• Date:

  31 December 2003

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  London Borough of Southwark v Ayton

  In London Borough of Southwark v Ayton EAT/515/03, the Employment Appeal Tribunal upheld an employment tribunal's reasoning in finding victimisation and its recommendation that the respondent should arrange training in respect of racial awareness for the person held to have victimised the claimant, but remitted the claim to the employment tribunal to consider whether the allegation made by the claimant was false and not made in good faith.