Sexual orientation 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.

• Date:

  17 December 2020

  Type:

  Commentary and insights

  Seven key employment law cases from 2020

  While the focus has been on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, HR professionals have still had their fair share of employment law cases to keep track of in 2020. We highlight seven noteworthy cases from 2020 that employers should know about.

• Type:

  Employment law cases

  ECJ considers if homophobic comments made in radio interview breached EU law

  In NH v Associazione Avvocatura per i diritti LGBTI, the European Court of Justice held that a senior lawyer's comments on a radio programme that he would not wish to recruit homosexual people fell within the scope of the Equal Treatment Framework Directive (2000/78/EC) even though his firm was not recruiting, or planning to recruit, at the time.

• Type:

  Employment law cases

  £174,000 award for gay employee who suffered homophobic taunts

  In Allen v Paradigm Precision Burnley Ltd and another, an employment tribunal found that homophobic comments made by colleagues to to a gay employee amounted to sexual orientation harassment.

• Type:

  Employment law cases

  Sexual orientation discrimination: Tribunal identifies wrong hypothetical comparator

  In Governing Body of Sutton Oak Church of England Primary School and others v Whittaker, the Employment Appeal Tribunal held that an employment tribunal failed to identify an appropriate hypothetical comparator when deciding that a gay teacher's dismissal for inappropriate meetings with a pupil constituted sexual orientation discrimination.

• Type:

  Employment law cases

  Constructive dismissal: School mishandles disciplinary action against headteacher

  In Governing Body of Tywyn Primary School v Aplin, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) upheld a headteacher's constructive dismissal and sexual orientation discrimination claims after his school mishandled disciplinary action over his lawful sexual activities with two 17-year-olds he met through Grindr.

• Type:

  Employment law cases

  No direct sexual orientation discrimination in Christian bakery's refusal to make "gay cake"

  In Lee v Ashers Baking Co Ltd and others, the Supreme Court held that a Christian bakery did not commit direct sexual orientation discrimination in the provision of goods and services when it refused to fulfil a cake order with a message in support of same-sex marriage.

• Type:

  Employment law cases

  Sexual orientation discrimination: Christian hotel owners directly discriminated against civil partners in refusing them double room

  In Bull and another v Hall and another [2013] UKSC 73 SC, the Supreme Court held that Christian hotel owners directly discriminated against a same-sex couple who were civil partners when they refused them a double-bedded room in accordance with their policy of letting such rooms to married couples only.

• Type:

  Employment law cases

  Sexual orientation discrimination: Christian B&B owners' refusal of double-bedded room for civil partners not justified

  The Supreme Court has held that the owners of a bed and breakfast, whose religious beliefs include that sexual relations outside heterosexual marriage are sinful, could not justify their refusal to give civil partners a room with a double bed, in this important discrimination case on the conflict between sexual orientation laws and the right to manifest religious beliefs.