EAT Sex Discrimination : Sexual Orientation discrimination / transexualism : The recipient of an occupational pension since 2003, under the terms of a pension scheme which provided survivor’s benefits to spouses but not to those in a civil partnership, insofar as those benefits derived from service prior to the day the Civil Partnership Act 2004 came into force (5 December 2005), succeeded in his claim to the Tribunal that he was thereby unlawfully discriminated against on the grounds of sexual orientation. It was accepted that provisions of the Equality Act 2010 appeared to permit this, but the ET held those provisions incompatible with Directive 2000/78/EC, and that they could and should be interpreted to permit a Civil Partner to benefit from service at the time before it was unlawful to discriminate on grounds of sexual orientation.
Held
The ET was wrong to hold the provisions incompatible, but if it had not been, could not properly have interpreted the provisions as it did. Nor could those provisions have been disapplied.
Langstaff J
[2014] UKEAT 0232 – 13 – 1802, [2014] Eq LR 192, [2014] IRLR 334, [2014] Pens LR 237, [2014] ICR 645
Bailii
Civil Partnership Act 2004, Directive 2000/78/EC, Equality Act 2010 23(3)
England and Wales
Cited by:
Cited – Walker v Innospec Ltd and Others SC 12-Jul-2017
The claimant appealed against refusal of his employer’s pension scheme trustees to include as a recipient of any death benefit his male civil partner.
Held: The appeal succeeded. The salary paid to Mr Walker throughout his working life was . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Employment, Discrimination, European
Updated: 11 November 2021; Ref: scu.521651