Pregnancy discrimination: European court rulings

1 Dismissal for pregnancy, childbirth or absence on maternity leave is automatically in breach of the Equal Treatment principle without having to consider what treatment would have been given to a man. Any public sector employees may enforce this principle against their employers without any service qualification (so said the ECJ in Foster -v- British Gas [1990] IRLR 353). Employees in the private sector, must rely on the Sex Discrimination Act or Section 60 of the Employment Protection (Consolidation) Act 1978. But the latter case requires two years' service. 2 The UK leaves itself open to infringement proceedings for inadequate implementation of the requirements of the Directive. 3 Tribunals and courts in the United Kingdom are bound to follow these two decisions in any future similar cases.