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ARTICLE · 31 JANUARY 2005

Plain Speaking - or Victimisation? (Employment Update)

Pinsent Masons
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Once a dispute is submitted to litigation, courts are anxious to protect parties from exposure to harm as a result. In discrimination law, the issues are so sensitive and the opportunities for retaliation so easy, that a special complaint of victimisation has been introduced to protect claimants and witnesses. As a result, employers have to act with particular care once a claim has been brought, as the recent case of <I>St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council v Derbyshire </I>shows.

United KingdomEmployment and HR
Christopher Booth
Christopher Booth

Originally published December 2004

Once a dispute is submitted to litigation, courts are anxious to protect parties from exposure to harm as a result. In discrimination law, the issues are so sensitive and the opportunities for retaliation so easy, that a special complaint of victimisation has been introduced to protect claimants and witnesses. As a result, employers have to act with particular care once a claim has been brought, as the recent case of St Helens Metropolitan Borough Council v Derbyshire shows.

The case concerned 500 or so school dinner staff employed by St Helens Council who claimed equal pay with the Council's road sweepers. Most settled their claims but 39 carried on to Tribunal. One of the Council's managers thought he should point out the results of their actions, should they succeed - school dinners would be priced out of the market and the consequences for them, their colleagues and for the service as a whole would be very serious. He wrote two letters, one to

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