The appellant was disabled, had legal qualifications, and worked with the respondent as a volunteer. She had sought assistance under the Disability Discrimination Act, now the 2012 Act, saying that she counted as a worker. The tribunal and CA had found no contractual relationship. She said that under the 2000 Directive (the Framework Directive ‘FD’) she would so count, and that the UK legislation should be read accordingly.
Held: The FD was not universal, and different activities were carefully defined to receive different levels of protection. The Commission had not had volunteering activities in mind as falling within the scope of article 3 of the FD. In the phrase, ‘occupation, employment or self-employment’, the word occupation was an umbrella term, and not a third alternative. There had been a proposal to amend the draft to add voluntary work to the protected occupations, but this had not been accepted.
Nor was there sufficient doubt about the matter to require a reference to the ECJ.
Lord Neuberger, President, Lord Walker, Lady Hale, Lord Mance, Lord Wilson
[2012] UKSC 59, [2013] 1 All ER 1038, [2013] IRLR 146, [2013] 2 CMLR 16, [2013] ICR 249, [2013] Eq LR 154, UKSC 2011/0112
Bailii, Bailii Summary, SC Summary, SC
Equality Act 2010, Directive 2000/78/EEC, Disability Discrimination Act 1995 68(1), Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (Amendment) Regulations 2003
England and Wales
Citing:
At EAT – X v Mid Sussex Citizens Advice Bureau and Another EAT 30-Oct-2009
EAT DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION: Exclusions/jurisdictions
The Employment Judge did not err in finding that the Appellant, a volunteer worker with the CAB, was not entitled by the DDA to claim disability . .
Cited – Marleasing SA v La Comercial Internacional de Alimentacion SA ECJ 13-Nov-1990
Sympathetic construction of national legislation
LMA OVIEDO sought a declaration that the contracts setting up Commercial International were void (a nullity) since they had been drawn up in order to defraud creditors. Commercial International relied on an EC . .
Appeal from – X v Mid Sussex Citizens Advice Bureau and Others CA 26-Jan-2011
The court was asked whether the claimant, a volunteer worker with the respondent had the protection of the 1995 Act in that work as a worker, despite nnot being employed. . .
Cited – Martinez Sala v Freistaat Bayern ECJ 12-May-1998
ECJ A benefit such as the child-raising allowance, which is automatically granted to persons fulfilling certain objective criteria, without any individual and discretionary assessment of personal needs, and which . .
Cited – Allonby v Accrington and Rossendale College for Education and Employment ECJ 13-Jan-2004
ECJ Principle of equal pay for men and women – Direct effect – Meaning of worker – Self-employed female lecturer undertaking work presumed to be of equal value to that which is undertaken in the same college by . .
Cited – Mangold v Helm ECJ 22-Nov-2005
ECJ Grand Chamber – Directive 1999/70/EC – Clauses 2, 5 and 8 of the Framework Agreement on fixed-term work – Directive 2000/78/EC – Article 6 – Equal treatment as regards employment and occupation – Age . .
Cited – Deborah Lawrie-Blum v Land Baden-Wuerttemberg ECJ 3-Jul-1986
The Equal Treatment Directive is concerned with ‘workers’ which is a term of art in Community law: ‘That concept must be defined in accordance with objective criteria which distinguish the employment relationship by reference to the rights and . .
Cited – Kucukdeveci v Swedex GmbH and Co KG ECJ 19-Jan-2010
ECJ Principle of non-discrimination on grounds of age – Directive 2000/78/EC – National legislation on dismissal not taking into account the period of employment completed before the employee reaches the age of . .
Cited – Ninni-Orasche v Bundesminister fur Wissenschaft, Verkehr und Kunst ECJ 6-Nov-2003
ECJ Freedom of movement for workers – Article 48 of the EC Treaty (now, after amendment, Article 39 EC) – Concept of worker – Contract of employment of a short term fixed in advance – Retention of the status of . .
Cited – Sturgeon and Others v Condor Flugdienst GmbH ECJ 19-Nov-2009
The claimants’ flights had been cancelled. In one case the passengers had been booked on an alternative flight which had been treated as a substitute for the original flight and the carriage had been performed under the original tickets. In the . .
Cited – Jivraj v Hashwani SC 27-Jul-2011
The parties had a joint venture agreement which provided that any dispute was to be referred to an arbitrator from the Ismaili community. The claimant said that this method of appointment became void as a discriminatory provision under the 2003 . .
Cited – Meyers v Adjudication Officer ECJ 19-Jul-1995
EC directive on equal rights requires single parents to set off child care costs.
A social security benefit designed to keep low income workers in employment or to encourage them into employment was within the scope of Directive 76/207/EC, not . .
Cited – Junk v Kuhnel ECJ 27-Jan-2005
ECJ Social Policy – Directive 98/59/EC – Collective redundancies – Consultation with workers’ representatives – Notification to the competent public authority – Concept of ‘redundancy’ – Time at which redundancy . .
Cited – Srl CILFIT v Ministero Della Sanita ECJ 6-Oct-1982
ECJ The obligation to refer to the Court of Justice questions concerning the interpretation of the EEC Treaty and of measures adopted by the community institutions which the third paragraph of article 177 of the . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Discrimination, European
Leading Case
Updated: 02 November 2021; Ref: scu.467054