David Massarella's update on pregnancy and sex discrimination

David Massarella

Pregnancy and Sex Discrimination Update

Introduction

1.1 Most of the significant cases in this area over the last year have concerned  pregnancy discrimination. A wide range of questions have been considered, including the employer’s obligation to conduct risk assessments of pregnant  employees, the handling of redundancies during the protected period, as well as the related question of whether discrimination on the grounds of IVF treatment is prohibited.

1.2 Indirect sex discrimination has also been a recurrent theme, with particular focus on the selection of the appropriate pool for comparison. 

1.3 Of course, the single most important development, in this and all areas of discrimination law, has been the enactment of the Equality Act 2010. Whilst many of the cases below are related to the previous legislation, they will, almost without exception, remain relevant to the equivalent provisions under the new Act.