Marriage and civil partnership discrimination

New and updated

• Type:

  Employment law guide

  Discrimination in recruitment and selection

  Updated to include a reference to the protection from harassment measures in the Employment Rights Bill, published on 10 October 2024.

• Type:

  Employment law guide

  Discrimination law: The protected characteristics

  Updated to include a reference to Thomas v Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, in which the EAT considered if a belief in English nationalism amounted to a protected philosophical belief.

• Type:

  Employment law cases

  Supreme Court rules on equal pension benefits for civil partners and same-sex spouses

  The Supreme Court has overturned the Court of Appeal's decision and held that civil partners and same-sex spouses are entitled to pension benefits accrued before the introduction of civil partnerships on 5 December 2005.

• Type:

  Employment law cases

  ECJ case law round-up: recent discrimination decisions

  We round up three recent European Court of Justice (ECJ) judgments about discrimination. The ECJ has recently considered: temporary incapacity caused by a workplace accident in Barcelona; the recruitment age limit for Basque police officers; and survivors' pensions for same-sex partners in Ireland.

• Date:

  2 June 2012

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Marriage discrimination: Dismissal because employee was in close personal relationship, which happened to be marriage, was not discrimination

  In Hawkins v Atex Group Ltd and others EAT/0302/11, the EAT held that the dismissal of an employee because she was in a close personal relationship with a particular person, which happened to take the form of marriage, did not amount to unlawful marriage discrimination.

• Date:

  2 June 2012

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Marriage discrimination: Less favourable treatment of employee on ground that she was married to a particular person amounted to discrimination

  In Dunn v Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management EAT/0531/10, the EAT held that less favourable treatment accorded to an employee on the ground that she was married to a particular person, rather than because of her marital status per se, amounted to unlawful discrimination on the ground of marriage.

• Type:

  Employment law cases

  Case round-up

  Georgina Kyriacou and David Malamatenios are partners and Sandra Martins, Colin Makin and Krishna Santra are associates at Colman Coyle Solicitors. They round up the latest rulings.

• Type:

  FAQs

  Are employees protected from discrimination because they are married or a civil partner?

• Type:

  FAQs

  Are employees protected from discrimination because they are not married or a civil partner?

• Date:

  1 June 1995

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Divorcee cannot claim marital status discrimination

  A divorced woman with children cannot complain under the Sex Discrimination Act that she has been discriminated against on grounds of her married status, a Bedford industrial tribunal (Chair: W B Carruthers) has ruled in Myers v (1) Slater and (2) Select Ticketing Systems.