Sexual Orientation Discrimination/Transexualism

An Employment Tribunal accepted that 6 out of 12 complaints of discrimination, and 5 out of 12 of unlawful harassment, were made out.  None of the acts complained of, save possibly one, was obviously and intrinsically discriminatory.  Each finding relied on the validity of the others. The first and second in the sequence involved accepting that the Claimant had suffered less favourable treatment, to his detriment, where his manager had mentioned to someone who had met the Claimant that he, the Claimant, was gay.  In its analysis the Tribunal did not deal at all with a fact which was common ground, and heavily relied on by the employer, namely that the Claimant had himself chosen to make his sexual orientation known when working in a large branch of the employer’s undertaking at Lytham, prior to moving to a branch at Coventry, and that the manager concerned knew this.  Nor did the Tribunal express any clear view whether it thought that the manager’s actions sought to undermine the Claimant at work because of his sexuality rather than being clumsy and unnecessary comment, which though not determinative of the issues raised in a discrimination case was highly relevant.  It was held that the Tribunal needed to deal with these matters which were central to the issues, and its overall decision could not stand in the light of its failure to do so. The case was remitted to a fresh tribunal.