English v. Sanderson Blinds Ltd

"English v. Sanderson Blinds Ltd" [2008] UKEAT/0556/07/LA is a UK labour law case on the question of whether a person can claim discrimination for sexuality with being (or without revealing that one is) actually gay.

Facts

Mr English, who had gone to boarding school and had lived in Brighton was the subject of homophobic banter at his workplace. He was placed there through an employment agency. He claimed harassment under r.5 of the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003, but the tribunal rejected his claim, because as he admitted, none of the work colleagues actually thought he was gay. He was represented by Reynold QC.

Judgment

On appeal, Peter-Clark J held he was not persuaded any material difference existed between the "on grounds" provisions in the Sex Discrimination Act and the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003. He held the Regulations do not properly implement the Directive (at 21), as was held by Burton J in "EOC v. SS for Trade and Industry" [2007] IRLR 327. So people should be allowed to claim even when they are not themselves gay.

However, he then said that the claimant’s difficulty was that nobody thought he was gay (at 23), so that the harassment was not on grounds of sexual orientation at all. It was a ‘vehicle for teasing the Claimant’ (at 24). He then said ‘without deciding the point, that the result may have been different on direct application of the Directive’.

ee also

*Employment discrimination law in the UK

Notes

External links

* [http://www.thomas-sanderson.co.uk/ Sanderson Blinds' website]