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Equality, diversity and human rights

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  • Date:
    1 July 1996
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    Transsexuals protected

    In P v S and Cornwall County Council (30 April 1996) EOR68A, the European Court of Justice rules that discrimination on grounds of a gender reassignment contravenes the EC Equal Treatment Directive.

  • Date:
    1 April 1996
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    Race discrimination: "Intentional" indirect discrimination by employer

    In JH Walker Ltd v Hussain and others the EAT holds that an employer "intentionally" indirectly discriminated against its Asian employees on the ground of race when, in accordance with a new policy that no holiday could be taken by employees during the three busiest months of the year, it required them to work on an important Muslim festival day, and disciplined them when they took the day off.

  • Date:
    1 November 1995
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    Sex discrimination and pregnancy: Pregnancy dismissal was unlawful sex discrimination

    An employer directly discriminates against a pregnant woman contrary to the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 if, having recruited her for an indefinite period, it dismisses her because she will be temporarily unavailable for work at a time when she knows that she will be particularly needed, holds the House of Lords in Webb v EMO Air Cargo (UK) Ltd.

  • Date:
    1 November 1995
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    No liability for victimisation

    In Waters v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis (14 February 1995) EOR64B, the EAT rules that an employer could not be not liable for victimising an employee who alleged that she was sexually harassed by a work colleague, where the alleged harassment was not committed in the course of employment.

  • Date:
    1 October 1995
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    Sex discrimination: Victimisation complaint requires employer to be vicariously liable

    In Waters v The Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, the EAT holds that an industrial tribunal correctly rejected a complaint by a female employee that she was victimised by her employer because she alleged that she had been sexually assaulted by a male colleague.

  • Date:
    1 September 1995
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    Sex discrimination: No exemplary damages for breach of Directive

    In Ministry of Defence v Meredith, the EAT holds that exemplary damages are not available to an ex-servicewoman who was dismissed contrary to the Equal Treatment Directive because she was pregnant.

  • Date:
    1 September 1995
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    Mobility clause challenged

    In Meade-Hill and another v British Council (7 April 1995), the Court of Appeal holds that a contractual mobility clause was capable of challenge on grounds that it was indirectly sex discriminatory, notwithstanding that the term had not yet been invoked, and that it was a term with an adverse impact upon women because a higher proportion of women than men are secondary earners who would find it impossible to move their workplace to a destination which involved a change of home. The Court of Appeal does not deal, however, with whether the mobility clause was justifiable.

  • Date:
    1 September 1995
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    Union discriminated against leftist for political opinions

    In McKay v Northern Ireland Public Service Alliance (No.2) the Fair Employment Tribunal (President: J Maguire) upholds a complaint of discrimination on grounds of political opinion by an applicant for a seconded trade union post.

  • Date:
    1 September 1995
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    £28,500 award in race case

    A black prison officer who was subjected to "a campaign of appalling treatment" over a period of almost two years is awarded compensation of £28,500, including a record £21,000 for injury to feelings, by a London South industrial tribunal (Chair: E R Donnelly) in Johnson v (1) Armitage (2) Marsden (3) HM Prison Service.

  • Date:
    1 September 1995
    Type:
    Employment law cases

    Severance payment terms did not discriminate

    In Barry v Midland Bank plc a London South industrial tribunal (Chair: E R Donnelly) rules that a voluntary severance payment scheme, which failed to take account any full-time service a part-time worker may have had, was not unlawfully indirectly discriminatory because most women worked full-time rather than part-time.

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