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Not just parents juggling work and caring - Shoosmiths

04 February 2008

Carers who juggle work with looking after someone disabled or elderly have had their situation acknowledged by a European ruling, according to national law firm Shoosmiths.

Lawyer and employment specialist Katy Meves said: “This is an acknowledgement that it is not just parents who are trying to juggle work and caring responsibilities."

The ruling was made in the case of Coleman v Attridge Law, when the European Advocate General said a legal secretary was discriminated against by the law firm she worked for after taking time off to care for her disabled son. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) now has to decide whether to approve the decision.

A South London employment tribunal had asked the ECJ to rule on whether Sharon Coleman was protected under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995. Until now, only disabled people themselves could claim against discrimination and harassment.

Meves said: “Although the case concerns the mother of a disabled child, there’s potential for much wider application of the legal principle of ‘associative discrimination’, and could, for example, be extended to include people caring for elderly relatives.”
 
But she questioned how it might be applied in practice.

"The DDA is already a complex piece of litigation, under which medical evidence is usually required to determine whether a claimant is ‘disabled’ for the purposes of the Act. It will be very interesting to see how the ruling ends up working.

“For example, will a tribunal be able to require the third party disabled person who is not actually bringing the claim themselves, to undergo a medical examination?“

She said: “There are an estimated six million carers in the UK who look after people who may be considered disabled, so the significance of an extension of the law in this area cannot be underestimated.”
 
"And because compensation under discrimination legislation is potentially uncapped, there’s a financial incentive for employees to bring such a claim rather than, or as well as, an unfair dismissal claim, where compensation is limited. Employees do not have to resign to bring a claim of discrimination."
 
Meves said employers, meanwhile, will be asking ‘What next?’, with the ruling coming on the back of continued Government extensions of parents’ employment rights: “Some employers might now believe rights are skewed too far in favour of employees.”

For further information please contact:
Name: Alastair Gray
Phone: 08700 864096
Email: alastair.gray@shoosmiths.co.uk

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