In January we wrote about Dunn v Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management. The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) had said that marital status protection covers situations where there has been discrimination based on marriage to a particular person, as opposed to just the fact of being married, or not.
Waters have now been muddied by Hawkins v Atex Group, a case in which the EAT was again asked to consider the 'particular person' point.
Ms Hawkins was employed by a company managed by her husband. Less than a year into the job, she was dismissed because of a company policy against employing close relatives. Ms Hawkins claimed unlawful discrimination.
She lost at tribunal and on appeal. The EAT said that the company had not applied a general rule or criterion against married women and the decision to dismiss was not motivated by Ms Hawkins being married to her husband. The EAT doubted some of the reasoning in Dunn and said that for there to be discrimination on the grounds of marital status the reason for the less favourable treatment had to be marriage, rather than because of who the claimant was married to.
This conflict with Dunn leaves the marital status provisions up in the air, for now at least.
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