Discrimination Based on Marital Status Illegal
Wednesday, February 1st, 2012
The Sex Discrimination Act of 1957 prohibits the discrimination against women based on their marital position. This act was enacted to prevent women from being dismissed just because they got married. According to the Equality Act of 2010, a person with “the protected characteristic of marriage and civil partnership” cannot be treated in a biased manner.
A different case has recently come up before the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT).The employee posted a complaint against her employer on the basis that she was being treated unjustly and was being sexually discriminated against. The employee’s husband was employed at the same place and had been involved in a dispute with the employer. This was the reason attributed for the biased manner in which the employee was being treated. Citing this reason the employee resigned from her job.
The most unique feature of this case is that the EAT had to decide whether a worker was protected from discrimination solely on the basis of the fact that he/she was married or whether this legal protection would extend to discrimination based on who the worker is married to.
In a landmark judgement, the Employment Appeal Tribunal came out with the decision that a person should not be discriminated against based on the person he/she is married to. This, it declared was an illegal act. The claim of being sexually discriminated against was dismissed by the EAT as the Sexual Discrimination Act did not provide for discrimination based on being married to a specific person.
Employers can keep themselves up to date with employment relations developments with a CIPD-accredited qualification; courses are taught on a fast-track basis by Workplace Law Training offering a combination of classroom and internet-based self-study – click CIPD Distance Learning for more information.