Majrowski v Guy's and St Thomas’s NHS Trust

Majrowski v Guy's and St Thomas’s NHS Trust
Court	House of Lords
Citation(s)	[2006] UKHL 34, [2006] ICR 1199
Keywords
Discrimination

Majrowski v Guy's and St Thomas’s NHS Trust [2006] UKHL 34 is a UK labour law case holding that an employer will be vicariously liable for the harassment of an employee by another.

Facts

Mr William Majrowski was a gay man, and worked as a clinical auditor co-ordinator. He claimed that his manager, Sandra Freeman bullied and harassed him, in breach of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997 section 1. He said this made the employer vicariously liable. The judge held there was no cause of action because section 3 created no statutory tort for which an employer could be vicariously liable.

Judgment

Lord Nicholls, Lord Hope, Baroness Hale all held that there was a new statutory tort for harassment in the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, and it made employers vicariously liable. It was not solely about stalking. This was supported by section 10(1) concerning Scotland.

Lord Nicholls emphasised the overlap with European Directives’ common definition of harassment, meaning unwanted conduct violating the dignity of a person.

See also

• UK labour law
• UK employment equality law

Notes

References

External links