Employment

It was established law that the protection of the special position of employees who were pregnant or on maternity leave might sometimes require them to be accorded treatment which was more favourable than that accorded to their colleagues.

However, that obligation could not extend to favouring pregnant employees or those on maternity leave beyond what was reasonably necessary to compensate them for being disadvantaged by their condition. To the extent that a benefit extended to a woman who was pregnant or on maternity leave was disproportionate, there was no reason why a colleague who was correspondingly disadvantaged should not be entitled to claim for sex discrimination.