The employee was a transsexual, awaiting completion of surgical transformation to a woman. The employer said she could not use the female toilet facilities, but was offered use of the unisex disabled facilities.
Held: The 1975 Act provides for a category of persons who are not to be discriminated against. By virtue of the definition in section 82 the category includes persons at all stages of gender reassignment under medical supervision but it does not follow that all such persons are entitled immediately to be treated as members of the sex to which they aspire. The stage of gender re-assignment was one diffficult to categorise simply. Both employer and employee must recognise the difficulties involved and act reasonably to overcome them. On the facts of this case, there was no conduct by the respondents which, upon her resignation, gave rise to a constructive dismissal.
Judges:
Lord Justice Keene Lord Justice Pill Lord Justice Jonathon Parker
Citations:
[2003] EWCA Civ 1045, Times 24-Jul-2003, [2003] IRLR 592, [2003] HRLR 34, [2003] ICR 1425
Links:
Statutes:
Sex Discrimination Act 1975 1 82
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
Cited – Bellinger v Bellinger HL 10-Apr-2003
Transgender Male to Female not to marry as Female
The parties had gone through a form of marriage, but Mrs B had previously undergone gender re-assignment surgery. Section 11(c) of the 1973 Act required a marriage to be between a male and a female. It was argued that the section was incompatible . .
Cited – P v S and Cornwall County Council ECJ 30-Apr-1996
An employee at an educational establishment told management that he intended to undergo gender reassignment. He was given notice of dismissal.
Held: The scope of the Directive was not confined to discrimination based on the fact that a person . .
Cited – A v Chief Constable of the West Yorkshire Police and Another CA 5-Nov-2002
The appellant had undergone a male to female sex change, but was refused employment by the respondent before the Human Rights Act came into effect.
Held: Although the Human Rights Act could not apply, the act was in breach of the Equal . .
Cited – Goodwin v The United Kingdom ECHR 11-Jul-2002
The claimant was a post operative male to female trans-sexual. She claimed that her human rights were infringed when she was still treated as a man for National Insurance contributions purposes, where she continued to make payments after the age at . .
Cited – Regina v Birmingham City Council ex parte Equal Opportunities Commission HL 1989
At the council’s independent, single-sex grammar schools there were more places available for boys than girls. Consequently the council were obliged to set a higher pass mark for girls than boys in the grammar school entrance examination.
Cited – D Canniffe v East Riding of Yorkshire Council EAT 17-Apr-2000
In applying the statutory test of reasonable practicality, ‘We are satisfied that the proper approach is: 1. to identify whether the respondent took any steps at all to prevent the employee, for where it is vicariously liable, from doing the act or . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Discrimination
Updated: 22 October 2022; Ref: scu.184886
