Employment

Employee dismissed - subsequent complaint of sex discrimination during employment - employment tribunal lacking jurisdiction to hear complaint made after employment terminatedRhys-Harper v Relaxion Group Plc: CA (Lords Justice Pill, Mantell and Buxton): 3 May 2001The applicant, after a disciplinary hearing, was dismissed from her employment.

Thereafter, relying on section 6(2) of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, she made a complaint of sexual harassment against the employer's manager which she alleged had occurred during her employment.

The employer found the allegation unsubstantiated.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal, allowing the employer's appeal from an employment tribunal, held that the tribunal did not have jurisdiction to entertain the applicant's complaint.

The applicant appealed.Helen Gower (instructed by Hancock Caffin, Helston) for the applicant.

David Reade (instructed by Jones & Warner) for the employer.Held, dismissing the appeal, that under section 6(2) of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 it was unlawful for a person in the case of a woman employed by him to discriminate against her by subjecting her to any detriment; that failure to vindicate a justified complaint of sexual discrimination could amount to detriment for the purposes of that provision; that in section 6(2) of the 1975 Act the words 'a person employed' referred to 'a person who is employed'; and that, accordingly, the tribunal could not entertain a complaint of sexual harassment by the applicant in relation to her employment which had not been made until after her employment had been terminated.