Employment Law: Sex Discrimination – Justification – Margin of Discretion
In the case of Hardys and Hansons plc v Lax [2005] EWCA Civ 846 (Court of Appeal), the appellant employers were brewers who ran a chain of public houses. The respondent was employed by the appellant and subsequently took maternity leave, and during this time, she put in a request to her employer to job share her post of retail recruitment manager upon her return from maternity leave, or alternatively to take up a tenanted support manager’s job on a job share basis. Her request was denied and she brought an action for unlawful sex discrimination and unfair dismissal in the Employment Tribunal (Tribunal).
Under the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 (SDA), inter alia, a person discriminates against a woman if “he applies to her a provision criterion or practice which he applies or would apply equally to a man, but… which he cannot show to be justifiable irrespective of the sex of the person to who it is applied…”.
The Tribunal stated that it was necessary for them to weigh the justification put forward by the employers against its discriminatory...
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