The appellant, a male delicatessen assistant, was dismissed by his employers because his hair, which he wore in a ponytail style, breached the employers’ rules for male staff, which stipulated tidy hair not below collar length and no unconventional hair styles.
Held: He had not been discriminated against on the grounds of sex. A dress code requiring each respective sex to dress conventionally was not discriminatory. He had not been treated less favourably than female staff who were allowed to have their hair long.
Phillips LJ said: ‘Discrimination is defined as being treated less favourably. In my judgment, this is plainly the meaning of discrimination in the Directive and the Act of 1975 fully reflects that Directive. In many instances discrimination between the sexes will result in treating one more favourably than the other, but this will not necessarily be the case. If discrimination is to be established, it is necessary to show not merely that the sexes are treated differently, but that the treatment accorded to one is less favourable than the treatment accorded to the other . . As [counsel for the employers] has pointed out, a code which made identical provisions for men and women but which resulted in one or other having an unconventional appearance, would have an unfavourable impact on that sex being compelled to appear in an unconventional mode. Can there be any doubt that a code which required all employees to have 18-inch hair, earrings and lipstick, would treat men unfavourably by requiring them to adopt an appearance at odds with conventional standards? I put that question to [counsel for the applicant], and he accepted that such a requirement would operate unfavourably towards men. The reason for that is that the appropriate criterion to be applied when considering that question is: what is the conventional standard of appearance? Indeed, it seemed to me that [the applicant’s counsel] implicitly conceded that when he submitted to us that what is discrimination can change as society changes. A code which applies conventional standards is one which, so far as the criterion of appearance is concerned, applies an even-handed approach between men and women and not one which is discriminatory.’
Leggatt LJ said: ‘Discrimination consists, not in failing to treat men and women the same, but in treating those of one sex less favourably than those of the other. That is what is meant by treating them equally. If men and women were all required to wear lipstick, it would be men who would be discriminated against. Provided that an employer’s rules, taken as a whole, do not result in men being treated less favourably than women, or vice versa, there is room for current conventions to operate.’
Judges:
Phillips LJ, Peter Gibson LJ, Leggatt LJ
Citations:
Times 05-Mar-1996, [1996] ICR 868
Statutes:
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Cited by:
Distinguished – Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills v The Interim Executive Board of Al-Hijrah School CA 13-Oct-2017
Single Sex Schooling failed to prepare for life
The Chief Inspector appealed from a decision that it was discriminatory under the 2010 Act to educate girls and boys in the same school but under a system providing effective complete separation of the sexes.
Held: The action was . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Discrimination
Updated: 08 May 2022; Ref: scu.89340