Sex discrimination

New and updated

• 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 June 1995

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  £35,000 for refusal to allow jobshare

  £35,000 compensation has been awarded by a Glasgow industrial tribunal (Chair: C M Milne) in Given v Scottish Power plc to a woman who resigned after being denied her request to jobshare.

• Date:

  1 June 1995

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  "Fucking waitresses" comment not discriminatory

  For a caterer to make a remark about "fucking waitresses" did not amount to sexual harassment, rules a Truro industrial tribunal (Chair: B E Walton) in Goodwin v Watkins.

• Date:

  1 June 1995

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Woman sacked, man demoted, for same misconduct

  A woman who was dismissed for sexual misconduct while her male partner was demoted for the same misconduct, was unlawfully discriminated against, rules an Aberdeen industrial tribunal (Chair: D I Morgan) in Hume v Compass Services (UK) Ltd.

• Date:

  1 June 1995

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Female applicants only

  An employer who instructed staff at a jobcentre to supply only female applicants for a vacant receptionist post acted unlawfully, holds a Leicester industrial tribunal (Chair: D R Sneath) in Equal Opportunities Commission v Bull t/a Arkwrights Night Club.

• Date:

  1 May 1995

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Sex discrimination: Mobility clause indirectly discriminatory against women

  In Meade-Hill and another v The British Council, the Court of Appeal holds that the inclusion of a mobility clause in a married woman's contract of employment constituted indirect discrimination against her as a woman under the Sex Discrimination Act 1975.

• Date:

  1 March 1995

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Overtime pay for part-timers

  In Stadt Lengerich v Helmig (15 December 1994) EOR60A, the European Court of Justice rules that there is no discrimination contrary to European Community law where a collective agreement provides that overtime supplements will be paid only when the normal working hours for full-time employees are exceeded.

• Date:

  1 March 1995

  Type:

  Employment law cases

  Identified for redundancy because of IVF absence

  A woman whose absence resulting from IVF treatment was treated as part of her sickness record for redundancy purposes was unlawfully discriminated against on the grounds of sex, rules an Ashford industrial tribunal (Chair: G W Davies) in Robinson v London Borough of Greenwich.