The European Court of Justice has held that German legislation that requires civil servants to retire at 65 can be justified if "appropriate and necessary" means are used to achieve the aim of balancing the employment levels of young and older civil servants to encourage the recruitment and promotion of young people. It also stressed that budgetary considerations cannot by themselves constitute a legitimate aim in relation to a member state's social policy.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that an employer's compliance with the TUPE legislation to preserve existing contractual terms and conditions that results in a disparity in pay can amount to a genuine material factor that may provide a defence to an equal pay claim.
This unusual case concerned whether or not an employee's beliefs that the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and 7/7 were carried out by the US and UK Governments, and were part of a "gigantic" and "evil" conspiracy, are capable of being protected as "philosophical beliefs" under discrimination law.
The Court of Appeal has held that a gay employee, who had revealed his sexual orientation at his previous office, was not discriminated against at his new office when his manager mentioned his sexual orientation to, and in front of, colleagues.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that the employment tribunal had not considered properly the evidence as to whether or not a significant group of Sikhs were disadvantaged by a council's policy that all staff who used of the communal staff kitchen had to join the rota to clean the fridge.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that the employment tribunal was entitled to impose a wide range of recommendations on a school that it found had committed age discrimination, included requiring a review of many of its policies by an HR professional.
Claire Benson is managing associate and Helen Corbett, Sinead Jones, Helen Ward and Tori O'Neil are associates at Addleshaw Goddard LLP. They round up the latest rulings.
This case is an example of an employer that needed to deal with the extremely difficult issue of having a disciplinary matter pending against a member of staff on maternity leave.