Rights and remedies: Part-time workers and the equal opportunities Commission

Abstract

In a landmark case the House of Lords has handed down a decision which should not only improve the position of some of the UK's most disadvantaged workers but, equally as crucial, should increase the importance and strategic effectiveness of the Equal Opportunities Commission. The decision in Equal Opportunities Commission v. Secretary of State for Employment [1994] 1 All ER 910 that part-time employees are being sexually discriminated against, contrary to European law, by the provisions of a UK statute which imposes more onerous conditions on them than on their full-time colleagues will have important implications for part-timers both specifically in relation to qualifying for employment protection rights and, almost inevitably, beyond the confines of that legislation (Employment Protection (Consolidation) Act 1978). Those consequences are more than matched by the fact that the EOC was allowed to seek, on its own behalf a declaration that the UK laws were in contravention of the European Treaty and two Directives. The ramifications of this procedural aspect of the decision should not be underestimated

Key Words:

• part-time
• Workers
• Rights
• Discrimination
• UK
• review