Equality, diversity and human rights
In Morse v Wiltshire County Council, the EAT holds that an industrial tribunal must go through a number of sequential steps when dealing with an employer's alleged failure to comply with a duty to make reasonable adjustments in relation to the disabled person concerned.
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.
In Weathersfield Ltd t/a Van & Truck Rentals v Sargent, the EAT upholds an industrial tribunal's finding that a white employee suffered unlawful race discrimination when she was instructed by her employer to discriminate on racial grounds against black and Asian people, and consequently resigned because she was put in an intolerable position.
In Marks & Spencer plc v Martins (19 December 1997) EOR79B, the Court of Appeal rules that it was an error for an industrial tribunal to find that the employer discriminated against an applicant on grounds of her race because its interviewers were guilty of "bias".
In Bossa v Nordstress Ltd and another, the EAT holds that an industrial tribunal has jurisdiction to determine an Italian national's complaint that, because of his nationality, he was denied an interview in this country for a job based in Italy.
The concept of direct discrimination under the Race Relations Act requires it to be shown that the claimant has been treated by the person against whom the discrimination is alleged less favourably than that person treats or would have treated another, the House of Lords rules in Zafar v Glasgow City Council.
In Stedman v UK [1997] 23 EHRR 168 ECHR, the European Commission of Human Rights held that the dismissal of a woman for refusing on religious grounds to accept a new contract that would have required her to work Sundays was not an interference with her freedom of religion or other rights under the European Convention on Human Rights.
In Poulton v Walton [1998] ET/1805515/97, the employment tribunal found that an employee with diabetes controlled by diet was disabled. Diet was a 'measure' taken to treat the diabetes so the effect of following the diet had to be ignored in considering whether he was disabled. He was not discriminated against in respect of his disability since the dismissal was not for a reason related to his disability.
The Scottish and the English constitute separate racial groups for the purposes of the Race Relations Act, defined by reference to their "national origins", rules the EAT in Northern Joint Police Board v Power.
An employer did not act in fundamental breach of an employee's contract of employment when it required him to retire at the age of 55, in accordance with its retirement policy aimed at achieving a younger workforce, even though the contract incorporated an equal opportunities policy containing an express commitment to offer equal opportunities regardless of age, rules the EAT in Secretary of State for Scotland v Taylor.
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