I always get irritated when employment law makes it into the media. They never get it right. The Advocate General in the case of Coleman v Attridge Law has said that treating someone less favourably because they are associated with a disabled person amounts to disability discrimination. This is potentially important because our Disability Discrimination Act only protects people who are themselves disabled.
What the case does not do is provide for any new rights for carers. The key legal issue for the overwhelming majority of mothers who want to work flexibly to care for children – disabled or otherwise – will be the rules on indirect sex discrimination and the right to request flexible working. Neither of these are affected by the Coleman case. In Coleman the claimant alleges – and nothing has been proved yet – that she was subjected to less favourable treatment compared to other employees who were given flexible working options purely because her child was disabled. If that is true then one can see why the AG would think that that should be covered by discrimination law, but the situation shouldn’t be one that affects many people in Ms Coleman’s position – at least let’s hope not.
By the Way, I’m speaking at a conference on flexible working on Wednesday 6th February for IRS at the Institute of Directors. I’ll load my paper onto these pages for anyone interested.
Darren
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