Discrimination

An expectation or assumption that someone will work late may be sufficient to amount to a ‘provision, criterion or practice’ (PCP) for the purposes of a claim of failure to make reasonable adjustments in disability discrimination.

High Street retailer liable for substantial award for discriminating against a transgender employee.

While an employer hadn’t explored every conceivable avenue, it had done enough to avoid a finding that it had constructive knowledge of an employee’s disability and thus be liable for having to make reasonable adjustments.

Absence management policies which dismiss disabled employees for intermittent absences must be objectively justified.

The Court of Appeal has restored what until recently was seen to be the orthodox approach to proving discrimination, i.e. the burden of making out a prima facie case remains on a claimant.

Talbot v Costain Oil Gas & Process Ltd

When drawing inferences of discrimination, it’s the overall picture which is important.

Government Legal Service v Brookes

Requiring a job applicant with Asperger’s syndrome to complete an online multiple-choice psychometric test was indirectly discriminatory.

Essop v Home Office; Naeem v Secretary of State for Justice

This latest decision from the Supreme Court clarifies the precise legal test to be used and particularly whether a claimant needs to establish the reason why the treatment they received discriminated against them.

Achbita v G4S Secure Solutions; Bougnaoui v Micropole SA

Sometimes, says the European Court of Justice (ECJ). However, one thing the decisions have definitely not done is given the green light to any employer to ban headscarves in the workplace.

Gareddu v London Underground

An employer did not indirectly discriminate (on the grounds of religion or belief) against one of its employees when it refused him permission to take five weeks’ holiday to attend religious festivals with his family.

Herry v Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council

Unhappiness with a decision or a colleague, a tendency to nurse grievances, or a refusal to compromise (if these or similar findings are made by a tribunal) are not of themselves mental impairments. They may simply reflect a person’s character or personality and are ‘reactions to adverse circumstances’.