''English v Sanderson Blinds Ltd''

008 008, OO8, O08, or 0O8 may refer to: * "008", a fictional 00 Agent In Ian Fleming's James Bond novels and the derived films, the 00 Section of MI6 is considered the secret service's elite. A 00 (pronounced "Double O") is a field agent who ho ...

EWCA Civ 1421 is a

UK labour law United Kingdom labour law regulates the relations between workers, employers and trade unions. People at work in the UK have a minimum set of employment rights, from Acts of Parliament, Regulations, common law and equity (legal concept), equity. ...

case on the question of whether a person can claim discrimination for sexuality without being (or without revealing that one is) actually gay. The Court of Appeal decided that it was irrelevant whether someone was gay or not or the bullies believe the person is gay or not, if the harassment has sexuality as its focus.

Facts

Stephen English, who lived in

Brighton Brighton ( ) is a seaside resort in the city status in the United Kingdom, city of Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England, south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze Age Britain, Bronze Age, R ...

, was a heterosexual married man with three children who worked for Thomas Sanderson Ltd between 1996 and August 2005, when he left voluntarily. He went to an Employment Tribunal, claiming harassment in the workplace under section 5 of the

Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003 The Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003 were secondary legislation in the United Kingdom, which prohibited employers unreasonably discriminating against employees on grounds of sexual orientation, perceived sexual orientat ...

, alleging that he had been the subject of homophobic mockery, but the tribunal rejected his claim because he admitted that none of his colleagues had actually thought he was gay. He was represented by Frederic Reynold QC.English v Sanderson Blinds Ltd (2008) EWCA Civ 1421
at bailii.org, accessed 17 November 2016

Judgment

Employment Appeal Tribunal

At the Employment Appeal Tribunal, Peter-Clark J held he was not persuaded any material difference existed between the "on grounds" provisions in the Sex Discrimination Act and the

. He held the Regulations do not properly implement the Directive (at 21), as was held by Burton J in '' EOC v. SS for Trade and Industry''

007 The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...

IRLR 327. So people should be allowed to claim even when they are not themselves gay. However, he then said that the claimant’s difficulty was that nobody thought he was gay (at 23), so that the harassment was not on grounds of sexual orientation at all. It was a ‘vehicle for teasing the Claimant’ (at 24). He then said ‘without deciding the point, that the result may have been different on direct application of the Directive’.

Court of Appeal

The Court of Appeal by a majority applied the Directive directly, overturning the EAT's decision. Laws LJ gave the first judgment, and dissented, saying there was no harassment under regulation 5.

Sedley LJ Sir Stephen John Sedley (born 9 October 1939) is a British lawyer. He worked as a judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales from 1999 to 2011 and was a visiting professor at the University of Oxford from 2011 to 2015. Early life and ed ...

found that there was harassment, Lawrence Collins LJ agreed with Sedley LJ, and said there was harassment.

Notes

{{reflist

External links

Sanderson Blinds' website
*Afua Hirsch
'Landmark rulings strengthen gay rights in workplace'
(20.12.2008) ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...