Employers are often surprised when men claim for sex discrimination as there is a fairly generalised view that only women can claim sex discrimination.
The recent case of, Evershed's legal services Ltd v Bellin has really highlighted that this is not always the case. The case itself also makes employers aware that just because somebody is on maternity leave they should not unfairly disadvantage male employees.
Mr Bellin was a solicitor who was placed at risk of redundancy alongside one of his female colleagues who at the time was on maternity leave.
A scoring system was put in place and a score was given for "lock-up" which is the time it takes for a solicitor to secure payment from clients for work done.
Due to Mr Belin’s female colleague being on maternity leave, she was given maximum points for lock up which meant that Mr Bellin was then only given a low score of 1.5.
This meant that Mr Bellin's score was 27 and his colleagues was 27.5. it was argued during the consultation exercise that alternatives could have been used such as;
1. giving both candidates a notional score of 1
2. averaging her performance over a 12 month period
3. scoring at the last convenient date before she started maternity leave i.e. the end of December 2007.
Had the firm adopted the last suggestion then the two scores would have been the same.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal found that although there are circumstances where those on maternity leave are given special treatment in comparison to their male and female colleagues, that special treatment should not go beyond what is reasonably necessary to compensate them for the disadvantage occasioned by their condition.
Employers must ensure that although an employee who is made redundant while on maternity leave does have the right to any suitable alternative vacancies ahead of any other employees, when deciding who to make redundant, automatically favouring a female employee on maternity leave does not always mean that it would not unfairly disadvantage male employees allowing them to successfully bring a claim for sex discrimination.
Equally this is something that may well affect more men in the future particularly with enhanced Paternity rights.
The recent case of, Evershed's legal services Ltd v Bellin has really highlighted that this is not always the case. The case itself also makes employers aware that just because somebody is on maternity leave they should not unfairly disadvantage male employees.
Mr Bellin was a solicitor who was placed at risk of redundancy alongside one of his female colleagues who at the time was on maternity leave.
A scoring system was put in place and a score was given for "lock-up" which is the time it takes for a solicitor to secure payment from clients for work done.
Due to Mr Belin’s female colleague being on maternity leave, she was given maximum points for lock up which meant that Mr Bellin was then only given a low score of 1.5.
This meant that Mr Bellin's score was 27 and his colleagues was 27.5. it was argued during the consultation exercise that alternatives could have been used such as;
1. giving both candidates a notional score of 1
2. averaging her performance over a 12 month period
3. scoring at the last convenient date before she started maternity leave i.e. the end of December 2007.
Had the firm adopted the last suggestion then the two scores would have been the same.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal found that although there are circumstances where those on maternity leave are given special treatment in comparison to their male and female colleagues, that special treatment should not go beyond what is reasonably necessary to compensate them for the disadvantage occasioned by their condition.
Employers must ensure that although an employee who is made redundant while on maternity leave does have the right to any suitable alternative vacancies ahead of any other employees, when deciding who to make redundant, automatically favouring a female employee on maternity leave does not always mean that it would not unfairly disadvantage male employees allowing them to successfully bring a claim for sex discrimination.
Equally this is something that may well affect more men in the future particularly with enhanced Paternity rights.
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