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Law Cases
Labour Law Cases
Conceptural apparatus of discrimination and equal treatment Cases

Pearce v Mayfield School [2003] ICR 937

Country:
United Kingdom
By Oxbridge Law Team
Lord Nicholls

  • A lesbian teacher was called insulting terms like ‘dyke’.

  • HL said this was not sex discrimination within s.1(1)(a) SDA. The question was whether a male comparator (i.e. a homosexual) would have been treated differently by the employer. Otherwise it could not be found that the reason for the harassment was gender based.

  • On the facts there was no evidence that a homosexual employee would have been treated any differently.

    • It was irrelevant that the taunts were gender specific (i.e. to lesbians).

Lord Nicholls

  • Sexual harassment under SDA is only possible where the reason for the harassment was because of the individual’s sex.

  • The fact that the harassment takes form through gender-specific words or actions (e.g. calling her a dyke) does not mean that gender was the reason for the harassment.

  • The reason for the abuse was sexuality, not sex. 

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