The House was asked for a preliminary ruling before a referral of the case to the ECJ as to whether the applicants could rely as against the British Gas Corporation on an unimplemented Council Directive. Although the gas industry had been privatised by the time of the litigation and the rights and liabilities of the British Gas Corporation had been transferred to British Gas plc the courts had to consider the position of a nationalised industry.
Held: The Corporation was a body against which the Directive could be enforced, thus overruling all the lower courts. ‘The principle laid down by the ECJ is that the state must not be allowed to take advantage of its own failure to comply with Community Law. The policy of the BGC which involved discrimination against women in breach of the Directive, was no doubt thought to be in the financial and commercial interests of the BGC. The advantages of that policy would accrue indirectly to the State which provided through the BGC a supply of gas for all citizens generally and which was entitled to the surplus revenue of the BGC. If the BGC were allowed to escape the consequences of an admitted breach of the Directive the State would be taking advantage of its own failure to comply with Community Law. I can see no justification for a narrow or strained construction of the ruling of the ECJ which applies to a body ‘under the control of the state’ …………… I decline to apply the ruling of the ECJ, couched in terms of broad principle and purposive language characteristic of Community Law in a manner which is, for better or worse, sometimes applied to enactments in the United Kingdom parliament.’
Citations:
[1991] 2 AC 306, [1991] 1 QB 40
Statutes:
Directive 1976 EEC/76/207 5(1)
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
At ECJ – Foster and others v British Gas plc ECJ 12-Jul-1990
The defendants (BGC) were nationalised suppliers of gas. BGC was by statute a body with a legal persona operating under the supervision of the authorities. Its members were appointed by the Secretary of State, who also determined their remuneration. . .
Cited by:
Cited – North Wales Training and Enterprise Council Ltd v Astley and others HL 21-Jun-2006
Civil servants had been transferred to a private company. At first they worked under secondment from the civil service. They asserted that they had protection under TUPE and the Acquired Rights Directive. The respondent said that there had only been . .
Cited – Doughty v Rolls Royce Plc CA 19-Dec-1991
The claimants sought to assert their rights under the Equal Treatment Directive, whoch had not been implemented. She had been made to retire at 60, but said that had she been a man she would not have had to retire until she reached 65 years old. She . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
European, Employment, Discrimination
Updated: 07 May 2022; Ref: scu.242676