Equality, diversity and human rights
In British Coal Corporation v Smith and others, the House of Lords holds that a woman claiming equal pay for equal work with men employed by the same employer at different establishments must show that those men, and employees in the same category as them at her own establishment, were or would be employed on broadly similar terms and conditions.
In Smith v Safeway plc, the Court of Appeal holds that an industrial tribunal was entitled to decide that an employer's appearance code which required male employees' hair not to be below collar-length was not discriminatory.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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