Gender Transition – Deadnamed Employee Wins Substantial Compensation

Those who undergo the challenging process of gender transition are entitled to their employers’ full understanding and support in establishing their new identity. A local authority which woefully failed in that obligation by persistently deadnaming a transitioning employee was ordered to pay her…

Oct 18, 2023

The woman gave the council eight months’ notice of her intention to transition. She subsequently launched Employment Tribunal (ET) proceedings, alleging numerous acts of direct discrimination contrary to Section 13 of the Equality Act 2010. She claimed, amongst other things, that the council entirely failed to support her in achieving acceptance of her new, gender appropriate name.

The council accepted that its Dignity at Work Policy had not at the relevant time been updated to reflect the requirements of the Act. It admitted that, for a period of about two years following the woman’s transition, it failed to update her name on its pension records, staff directory or complaints system. For many months, her door pass also continued to bear her former name.

Ruling on the matter, the ET noted that the council has thousands of employees and a human resources department numbering around 60. Given those resources, the failure to have an up-to-date policy in place was surprising. No appropriate staff training on trans issues was provided. The woman was left to navigate the council’s complex systems with no support, or even signposting, from human resources.

The council said that it had learned a lesson with regard to deadnaming and that more support would in future be provided to transitioning employees. The ET found, however, that its policies and practices at the relevant time were woefully inadequate and that the woman understandably felt badly let down.

In awarding her £21,000 in compensation for injury to her feelings, the ET noted the council’s apparent failure to formally apologise for its lengthy delay in addressing the deadnaming issue. That added to her distress and, whilst she had thankfully made a good recovery, deadnaming was a contributory factor in her very significant period of psychiatric ill health. She was also awarded £4,423 in interest.

Exemplary Sales Assistant Succeeds in Pregnancy Discrimination Claim

There can be few things more harmful to an employer’s reputation than a finding that it has discriminated against a worker for being pregnant. In a damning decision, an Employment Tribunal (ET) ruled that an exemplary sales assistant was dismissed because of her employer’s reluctance to shoulder the cost of her maternity leave. The woman was a model employee who worked long hours, six days a week, for a retailer that paid her the minimum wage. During the 13 months she held her job, she was…

Disability Discrimination – Diabetic Cake Shop Worker Compensated

Discrimination against disabled employees is a social evil with which Employment Tribunals (ETs) will have no truck. In one case, a cake shop worker who was dismissed because of her diabetes was awarded thousands of pounds in compensation. The woman’s condition meant that, without daily insulin injections, she would suffer a hypoglycaemic episode and fall into a coma. At the date of her dismissal, she was in stage B renal failure. In sacking her by text, her manager expressed the view that she…

‘Secular Atheism’ a Philosophical Belief Worthy of Human Rights Protection

It is a fundamental feature of any democratic society that anyone can freely express their philosophical beliefs, even if others may find them offensive. An Employment Tribunal (ET) powerfully made that point in the case of a train conductor who was sacked after venting his secular atheist views on social media. In welcoming the reopening of pubs at the end of a COVID-19 lockdown, the man wrote an online post urging people not to let their way of life ‘become some sort of Muslim alcohol-free…