Employment

It was established law that the characteristic protected by s 3 of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 was the fact of being married. The relevant comparator was a person who was not married. Since, in any comparison for the purpose of s 3, the relevant circumstances had to be the same but for the protected characteristic, the appropriate comparator would usually be someone in a relationship akin to marriage but who was not married.

It was important to appreciate that a case where a woman was dismissed because she was married to a particular person would not always fall within the scope of s 3. It was essential that the fact that they were married was part of the ground for the employer’s action. The question was not whether the employee suffered the treatment in question because she was married to a particular man, but whether she suffered it because she was married to that man.